Correlation between magnetic resonance enterography and ileo-colonoscopy for assessment of disease activity in terminal ileal Crohn's disease.

backgroundMagnetic resonance enterography (MRE) has emerged as a novel tool for the assessment of disease activity in Crohn's disease (CD). Real world data from Indian subcontinent on performance of MRE in terminal ileal CD are lacking.

methodsRetrospective analysis of patients with terminal ileal CD who underwent both ileo-colonoscopy and MRE was performed. Ileo-colonoscopy was considered the gold standard for assessment of disease activity. On ileo-colonoscopy, a simple endoscopic score for Crohn's disease (SES-CD) ≥2 was considered active disease; presence of ulcers indicated severe disease. MRE scoring of the disease activity was performed using magnetic resonance index of activity (MARIA) and simplified MARIA (MARIAs). The measure of agreement between ileo-colonoscopy and MRE and comparison of MARIA and MARIAs for assessment of disease activity and sensitivity of MRE to detect mucosal ulcerations were calculated.

resultsSeventy patients with terminal ileal CD (mean age 40.74±15.56 years; 71.4% males [n=50]) were evaluated. The sensitivities of MARIA and MARIAs scores to detect active disease were 0.76 and 0.84, respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) for detecting severe disease was 0.836 (p<0.0001) for MARIA and 0.861 (p<0.0001) for MARIAs. For mild active disease, there was no agreement between SES-CD and MARIA or MARIAs; however, for severe disease, the agreement was fair and moderate for MARIA and MARIAs, respectively. MARIA and MARIAs were comparable for identification of active and severe disease (κ 0.759, p<0.0001 and κ 0.840, p<0.0001, respectively). MRE was 68.18% sensitive to detect mucosal ulcers.

conclusionMRE is a reliable and sensitive tool for detection of endoscopically severe, but not mild, terminal ileal CD.