Published online Jan 21, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i3.1008
Peer-review started: July 4, 2015
First decision: July 20, 2015
Revised: August 27, 2015
Accepted: October 17, 2015
Article in press: October 20, 2015
Published online: January 21, 2016
Core tip: Stricturing Crohn’s disease (CD) significantly decreases patients’ quality of life and often represents a challenging treatment situation that may lead to hospitalization and surgery. Differentiating between the predominantly inflammatory strictures and the primarily fibrotic strictures is essential for selecting the appropriate treatment approach (anti-inflammatory medical treatment vs endoscopic or surgery-based interventions). This review summarizes the available diagnostic procedures and emphasizes the use of endoscopy and imaging modalities, including ultrasound and cross-sectional imaging. Finally, promising recent imaging advances that might enable a more specific characterization of CD-associated strictures in the future are presented.