An-Najah Staff

Endoscopic biopsy is considered the gold standard for the detection and quantification of inflammatory bowel diseases (1). However, there are several drawbacks due to its invasiveness, procedure-related discomfort and risk of perforation. MRI of the colon has the potential to overcome these limitations. Recently, ‘dark-lumen’ MR-colonography (MRC) has been introduced (2). The technique is based on the acquisition of a T1w sequence collected following the administration of a water-enema and the intravenous administration of paramagnetic contrast. The colonic wall enhances brightly and is thus easily delineated against the background of a dark, water-filled colonic lumen. The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic accuracy of dark lumen based MR-colonography for the detection and quantification of inflammatory bowel diseases in a patient cohort with suspected colitis using endoscopic biopsy and histopathology as the standard of reference.