Ultrasonography of the colon in pediatric ulcerative colitis: a prospective, blind, comparative study with colonoscopy.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the usefulness of colonic ultrasonography (US) in assessing the extent and activity of disease in pediatric ulcerative colitis (UC) and to compare US findings with clinical and endoscopic features. STUDY DESIGN: Consecutive pediatric patients (n = 60) with a diagnosis of UC and suspected disease flare-up were prospectively enrolled; of these, 50 patients were eligible for the study. All underwent clinical evaluation, bowel US with color Doppler examination and colonoscopy. Blind US was performed the day before endoscopy in all patients. The US assessed variables were bowel wall thickness >3 mm, bowel wall stratification, vascularity, presence of haustra coli, and enlarged mesenteric lymph nodes. RESULTS: The endoscopic extent of disease was independently confirmed in 47 patients by US that yielded a 90% concordance with endoscopy (95% CI 0.82-0.96). Multiple regression analysis showed that US measurements with an independent predictive value of severity at endoscopy were increased bowel wall thickness (P < .0008), increased vascularity (P < .002), loss of haustra (P = .031), and loss of stratification of the bowel wall (P = .021). Each variable was assigned a value of 1 if present. The US score strongly correlated with clinical (r = 0.94) and endoscopic activity (r = 0.90) of disease (P < .0001). CONCLUSIONS: Colonic US is a useful first line noninvasive tool to assess the extent and activity of disease in children with UC and to estimate the severity of a flare-up, prior to further invasive tests.

Small intestine contrast ultrasonography in pediatric Crohn's disease.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of small intestine contrast ultrasonography (SICUS) in pediatric Crohn's disease (CD). STUDY DESIGN: A total of 51 consecutive patients (median age 15 years; range 3-20, 31 male patients), 21 with suspected and 30 with proven CD, were studied. All patients underwent standard ultrasonography (ie, transabdominal ultrasonography [TUS]), SICUS, small bowel follow-through, and upper and lower endoscopy. SICUS was performed in patients after they ingested an oral contrast solution. TUS and SICUS were compared with small bowel follow-through and endoscopy via use of the final diagnosis as reference standard. RESULTS: In undiagnosed patients, the sensitivity and specificity of TUS and SICUS in detecting CD small bowel lesions were 75% and 100% and 100% and 100%, respectively. In patients with proven CD, the sensitivity and specificity of TUS and SICUS were 76% and 100% and 96% and 100%, respectively. The agreement (k) with radiology for site of lesions was almost perfect for SICUS (0.93), both for jejunal and ileal lesions, and it was fair (0.40) for jejunal and substantial (0.68) for ileal lesions for TUS. Compared with radiology SICUS correctly assessed the length of lesions, whereas TUS underestimated it (P = .0001). CONCLUSIONS: The radiation-free technique SICUS is comparable with radiology and more accurate than TUS in assessing small bowel lesions in pediatric CD, mainly in the detection of proximal small bowel disease.