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Strain elastography in Crohn’s disease: the role of visual observation and semiquantitative parameters

  • Pictorial Essay
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Abstract

Strain elastography is a recently developed ultrasound method that seems to contribute to the diagnosis and monitoring of inflammatory bowel diseases. This pictorial essay aims to present the feasibility of strain elastography in clinical practice by comparing visual observation and semiquantitative parameters with endoscopic or radiological images in some common cases of Crohn’s disease. In our opinion, strain elastography with visual observation is easily performed in connection with B-mode ultrasound and color Doppler imaging and may provide relevant information. Strain elastography with the elaboration of semiquantitative parameters is not as immediate as the visual observation method, but it seems to provide more objective data and seems more appropriate for monitoring the evolution of the disease. However, for the elastographic method to extensively contribute in inflammatory bowel diseases, standardization and further studies are required to confirm the promising results already reported in the literature.

SOMMARIO

L’elastografia Strain è una recente metodica ecografica che sembra avere un ruolo nella diagnosi e nel monitoraggio delle malattie infiammatorie intestinali. Lo scopo di questo Pictorial Essay è di verificare la fattibilità dell’elastografia Strain nella pratica clinica confrontando l’osservazione visiva e i parametri semi-quantitativi con immagini endoscopiche o radiologiche in alcuni casi comuni di malattia di Crohn. A nostro parere, l’elastografia strain con osservazione visiva è facilmente eseguibile in connessione con l’ecografia B-mode ed il color Doppler e può fornire informazioni rilevanti. L’elastografia strain con l’elaborazione di parametri semiquantitativi non è immediata come il metodo di osservazione visiva, ma sembra fornire dati più oggettivi e sembra più appropriata per monitorare l’evoluzione della malattia. Tuttavia, affinché il metodo elastografico possa avere un ruolo più diffuso nelle malattie infiammatorie dell’intestino, sono necessari la standardizzazione del metodo e ulteriori studi che confermino i risultati promettenti già riportati in letteratura.

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Funding

This study was not funded by third parties.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gastroenterology Unit, Misericordia Hospital, Via Senese 169, 58100, Grosseto, Italy

    Andrea Giannetti, Marco Matergi, Marco Biscontri, Francesco Tedone, Lucia Falconi, Luca Giovannelli & Valeria Ussia

  2. Radiology Department, Misericordia Hospital, Grosseto, Italy

    Luca Franci

Authors
  1. Andrea Giannetti
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  2. Marco Matergi
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  3. Marco Biscontri
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  4. Francesco Tedone
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  5. Lucia Falconi
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  6. Luca Giovannelli
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  7. Valeria Ussia
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  8. Luca Franci
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea Giannetti.

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Conflict of interest

Andrea Giannetti, Marco Matergi, Marco Biscontri, Lucia Falconi, Francesco Tedone, Valeria Ussia, Luca Giovannelli, Luca Franci declare they have no conflict of interest related to this study.

Ethical standards

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.

Informed consent

The patients provided written informed consent to the publication of information that could potentially lead to their identification.

Studies with human participants or animals

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Giannetti, A., Matergi, M., Biscontri, M. et al. Strain elastography in Crohn’s disease: the role of visual observation and semiquantitative parameters. J Ultrasound 22, 227–239 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40477-018-0324-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40477-018-0324-3

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