Differentiation between active and chronic Crohn's disease using MRI small-bowel motility examinations — Initial experience

Aim To evaluate the influence of locally active Crohn's disease on systemic small-bowel motility in patients with chronic Crohn's disease compared to healthy individuals. Material and methods Fifteen healthy individuals (11 men, four women; mean age 37 years) and 20 patients with histopathologically proven active ( n = 15; 10 women, 5 men; mean age 45 years) or chronic ( n = 5; four women, one man; mean age 48 years) Crohn's disease were included in this institutional review board-approved, retrospective study. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI; 1.5 T) was performed after standardized preparation. Two-dimensional (2D) cine sequences for motility acquisition were performed in apnoea (27 s). Motility assessment was performed using dedicated software in three randomly chosen areas of the small-bowel outside known Crohn's disease-affected hotspots. The main quantitative characteristics (frequency, amplitude, occlusion rate) were compared using Student's t- test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results Three randomly chosen segments were analysed in each participant. Patients with active Crohn's disease had significantly ( p