Diagnostic potential of endoscopic ultrasound for inflammatory bowel diseases and their complications

Abstract

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), which is a term for two conditions (ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease), are chronic inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract that are the subject of many studies and much discussion around the world. The global prevalence of IBD is 20.4 per 100 thousand for ulcerative colitis and 3.7 per 100 thousand for Crohn’s disease. Every year the number of patients is increasing, which may indicate improvement in diagnosis of IBD, but at the same time demonstrates certain disadvantages and difficulties in the diagnosis and treatment of this group of patients. However, despite the fact that IBD has been exercising the minds of scientists around the world for many decades, many issues of diagnosis and treatment of this pathology appear relevant. Due to the paucisymptomatic condition of patients at early stages and the similarity of its symptoms with other gastroenterological diseases, the diagnosis of IBD involves certain difficulties in many cases. Advanced forms of the disease, as well as complications of IBD, result from late diagnosis. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS, endo-ultrasound), which includes endoscopic and ultrasound examinations, is a modern imaging technique for the diagnosis of gastrointestinal diseases. The article discusses various international and Russian studies on the use of EUS in various pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract. Despite the absence of EUS in the formal guidelines for IBD, the technique appears promising for diagnosis, differential diagnosis of ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, as well as complications of these diseases, such as primary sclerosing cholangitis, chronic and autoimmune pancreatitis, autoimmune hepatitis, pancreatic cancer, etc.