CT vs. MRI

[jessie45]

Hi everyone
With my symptoms (Extreme distention/bloating, nausea, vomiting/reflux, constipation, and pain) my GI felt I had a narrowing in my small intestine. When reading up on this I found the most common reason for this is Crohn's. So I found this forum and saw some people did have same symptoms as me (ie, not the classic diarrhea and blood) so I thought it could be possible. [you can look at my previous posts for my info on symptoms if interested]

Anyway, I had my CT and it showed TWO areas of intussusception (which is where the bowel "telescopes" into itself). Now if it was just one area, it could be a rare fluke ("idiopathic") but I feel like two spots can't really be a coincidence.. It says this can be caused by things like crohn's, celiac, or tumours basically. I have had celiac ruled out with blood test and biopsy via upper endoscopy. The CT did not see any tumours/lesions. But it also didn't mention anything about inflammation, etc which I would expect it would see it it were crohn's.

Does an MRI pick up on inflammation from Crohn's that a CT may not? Anyone know? Is it possible that it could be crohn's that the CT didn't show? I really hope it isn't cancer that the CT didn't show.. I am young with no family history so I feel like it's probably not, but who knows :/ Waiting to see my GI on Wednesday re: this, but just wondering what you guys thought.

 

[Cosmojo]

Hmm CT vs MRI.
Obviously there are advantages and disadvantages to both. I'm not a doctor but have had multiple of both and here are my general impressions. First CT's do a good job, but with radiation obviously, and once you have too many of them it starts to get dangerous. They pick up on a lot of things in the abdomen so if there were other issues it would see that.
For MRI most people get MRE's (MRI with enterography) which basically means you are in the MRI machine and you drink a barium solution before hand so it lights up the insides of your intestines. Usually then they give you an injection that slows down your digestive system to get better pictures. The combo really helps light up trouble spots.
I personally like CT's more because I hate the barium drink, but I've had well over a dozen and I'd rather not fry my intestines so I only do MRE's. Also it seems that most of the subtle details of my disease have been seen on an MRE, CT's were only emergency things, to make sure I didn't have an obstruction ect.

Just because you are young and no family history doesn't mean it cant be Crohn's, a lot of people are diagnosed in teens or early twenties. Whatever it ends up being I wish you the best of luck-stay strong! Your Wednesday appointment will come quickly I promise

 

[Tesscorm]

MREs and CTs are fairly comparable, although I do believe images are slightly better from a CT. However, no one test is conclusive. It should be possible to see inflammation on both an MRE and CT, however, keep in mind that the images must be interpreted by a radiologist (or radiographer???) so there is a bit of room for error. An MRE will not pick up microscopic inflammation (not sure about CT). Even if these tests do not show inflammation, and you are continuing to have these symptoms, there are other tests that can be run such as upper endoscopy and colonoscopy with biopsies, capsule endoscopy, Fecal Calprotectin or lactoferrin.

Prometheus test will not pick up inflammation but can also be used as a tool to diagnose Crohns.

You can find additional info on all these tests in the forum wiki.

Good luck on Wednesday, I hope your GI has some answers for you.

 

[jessie45]

Cosmojo, thank you! I meant young and no family history of cancer so hoped I would be more likely to have crohns than cancer. Thanks a lot for your input and your good luck the MRE sounds like it could be a possible next step he may choose. I will see soon enough you're right

Tesscorm, thank you I have had an upper endoscopy with biopsy and colonoscopy (don't think he did biopsies? Not sure..) about 9 months ago. He maybe would want to repeat I'm not sure. Thank you I will keep those tests in mind. Thanks for the good luck and your experience!