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The Future of Intestinal Fibrosis Imaging

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Fibrostenotic Inflammatory Bowel Disease

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Abstract

Though the capabilities of available imaging technologies to assess intestinal damage have substantially improved, emerging alternative non-invasive imaging methods may offer advancements in detecting and quantifying intestinal fibrosis in the inflammatory bowel diseases. Both the immediate clinical need to measure fibrosis for therapeutic decision-making and the near-future need for tools to assess pipeline anti-fibrotic medications highlight the demand for better non-invasive biomarkers of fibrosis in Crohn’s disease. Developing imaging platforms assessing tissue mechanical properties, perfusion characteristics, and structural protein content provide new perspectives and possibilities for approaching intestinal fibrosis quantitation. In this chapter, we will discuss existing, emerging, and experimental imaging methods using ultrasound elastography, novel MRI sequences, and photoacoustic imaging to measure fibrosis in Crohn’s disease.

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Acknowledgment

NIH K23DK101687 (Stidham).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Ryan W. Stidham

  2. Department of Radiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Mahmoud Al-Hawary

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  1. Ryan W. Stidham
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  2. Mahmoud Al-Hawary
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Correspondence to Ryan W. Stidham .

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  1. Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Digestive Diseases and Surgery Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Florian Rieder

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Stidham, R.W., Al-Hawary, M. (2018). The Future of Intestinal Fibrosis Imaging. In: Rieder, F. (eds) Fibrostenotic Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90578-5_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90578-5_14

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