Value of Imaging in Diagnosis and Follow-up of Crohn's Disease Complicated with Intestinal Stricture

Intestinal stricture is one of the most common complications of Crohn's disease(CD). About 15% of CD patients can develop intestinal stricture within the first 10 years after diagnosis. CD complicated with intestinal stricture can be divided into inflammatory, fibrous and mixed types according to pathological changes. Patients with the inflammatory type can alleviate symptoms by drug treatment. In patients with the fibrous type, the affected intestinal segments can only be treated by interventional or surgical treatment. Therefore, it is very important for clinical decision-making to comprehensively evaluate the number, location and shape of narrow intestinal segments, and to distinguish the degree of inflammation and fibrosis of the intestinal wall. This article reviews the sensitivity and specificity of the main imaging methods including endoscopy, CT, MRI, and trans-abdominal ultrasound in the diagnosis of intestinal stricture. In recent years, many new imaging techniques have made great progress in differentiating inflammation and fibrosis of the narrow intestinal wall, which is expected to be widely used in clinical practice and to further improve the diagnosis and treatment of CD complicated with intestinal stricture.