Superior mesenteric artery blood flow in patients with small bowel diseases: Evaluation with duplex Doppler sonography

Activity of Crohn's disease assessed by colour Doppler ultrasound analysis of the affected loops

“…Indeed, vascular lesions and microvascular changes, such as granulomatous vasculitis, neovascularisation and dilatation of arteries and veins, are well-known features of Crohn's disease and are considered to be involved in the pathogenesis of this condition [15,16,17]. This increase in splanchnic blood flow has been shown in Crohn's disease by means of invasive or complex methods such as angiography or radioisotopic techniques, and recently also by Doppler US [9,10,18,19,20].…”

“…Thus, various groups of investigators have tried to assess the activity of Crohn's disease by performing different measurements on the portal vein (PV) and the superior mesenteric artery (SMA), such as velocity, RI or flow volume. However, when these parameters have been used to attempt evaluation of the inflammatory activity in Crohn's disease, results have been conflicting, particularly when patients with active vs quiescent disease were compared [9,10,18,19,20].…”

Crohn Disease Activity Evaluated by Doppler Ultrasonography of the Superior Mesenteric Artery and the Affected Small-Bowel Segments

“…In previous studies, some overlap in the RI values of the SMA in patients with active and inactive disease was found. [9][10][11]19,20 Byrne et al 19 detected the same RI value of 0.84 in both inactive and active groups, but the ranges were slightly different (083-0.86 versus 0.82-0.86, respectively). Rapaccini et al 8 found mean RI values of 0.81 ± 0.01 and 0.83 ± 0.02 in the active and inactive subgroups, respectively.…”

A study concerning morphometry of abdominal aorta branches and abdominal viscera: relations and correlation

“…Superior mesenteric artery diameter increases with a number of stimuli, including meal [37,76,90] and decreases with exercise [77], cold stimuli [81] and hypovolaemia [74]. Also SMA diameter increases in diseases with enteric manifestation [24], including Crohn's colitis [54,70] and celiac disease [1]. Major clinical importance of SMA diameter and flow is during evaluation of chronic mesenteric ischaemia.…”

“…Yet IMA supports important collateral network and is capable of increasing its diameter in case of CA, SMA or iliac arteries occlusion [24]; thus, detailed morphometric knowledge could aid in its sufficiency calculation in case of occlusive diseases.…”