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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. May 7, 2015; 21(17): 5231-5241
Published online May 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i17.5231
Ultrasonographic imaging of inflammatory bowel disease in pediatric patients
Liliana Chiorean, Dagmar Schreiber-Dietrich, Barbara Braden, Xin-Wu Cui, Reiner Buchhorn, Jian-Min Chang, Christoph F Dietrich
Liliana Chiorean, Xin-Wu Cui, Jian-Min Chang, Christoph F Dietrich, Sino-German Research Center of Ultrasound in Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan Province, China
Liliana Chiorean, Department of Ultrasonography, “Octavian Fodor” Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 400162 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Dagmar Schreiber-Dietrich, Christoph F Dietrich, Medical Department 2, Caritas-Krankenhaus, D-97980 Bad Mergentheim, Germany
Barbara Braden, Translational Gastroenterology Unit, Oxford University Hospitals, OX3 9DU Oxford, United Kingdom
Reiner Buchhorn, Department of Pediatrics, Caritas-Krankenhaus, D-97980 Bad Mergentheim, Germany
Author contributions: Dietrich CF established the design and conception of the paper; Chiorean L, Schreiber-Dietrich D, Braden B, Cui XW, Buchhorn R, Chang JM and Dietrich CF analyzed the literature data; Dietrich CF provided the first draft of the manuscript, which was discussed and revised critically for intellectual content by Chiorean L, Schreiber-Dietrich D, Braden B, Cui XW, Buchhorn R, Chang JM; Figures were provided by Dietrich CF; all authors discussed the statement and conclusions and approved the final version to be published.
Conflict-of-interest: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Christoph F Dietrich, Professor, Sino-German Research Center of Ultrasound in Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, No. 1 Jianshe East Road, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan Province, China. christoph.dietrich@ckbm.de
Telephone: +86 -371-66913150 Fax: +86-371-66913150
Received: December 18, 2014
Peer-review started: December 19, 2014
First decision: February 10, 2015
Revised: February 26, 2015
Accepted: March 31, 2015
Article in press: March 31, 2015
Published online: May 7, 2015
Abstract

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is one of the most common chronic gastrointestinal diseases in pediatric patients. Choosing the optimal imaging modality for the assessment of gastrointestinal disease in pediatric patients can be challenging. The invasiveness and patient acceptance, the radiation exposure and the quality performance of the diagnostic test need to be considered. By reviewing the literature regarding imaging in inflammatory bowel disease the value of ultrasound in the clinical management of pediatric patients is highlighted. Transabdominal ultrasound is a useful, noninvasive method for the initial diagnosis of IBD in children; it also provides guidance for therapeutic decisions and helps to characterize and predict the course of the disease in individual patients. Ultrasound techniques including color Doppler imaging and contrast-enhanced ultrasound are promising imaging tools to determine disease activity and complications. Comparative studies between different imaging methods are needed.

Keywords: Ultrasonography, Guidelines, Complication, Intestine, Pediatrics

Core tip: Inflammatory bowel disease is one of the most common chronic gastrointestinal diseases in pediatric patients. Choosing the optimal imaging modality for the assessment of gastrointestinal disease in pediatric patients can be challenging. The presented paper is intended to discuss the value of ultrasound, including conventional ultrasound, color Doppler imaging and contrast enhanced ultrasound, in the clinical management of pediatric patients with inflammatory bowel disease.