MR Enterography results

[Keralin]

I had an abnormal enteroscopy a couple of weeks ago with marked redness and ulcers in the cecum (positive capsule endoscopy several months ago with ulcers in the TI). Today I got the results back from an MRI I had done last week and the only findings were 'subtle area of enhancement within the ileocecal junction' and in kidneys 'simple cysts noted bilaterally'. Does this stuff sound pretty consistent with Crohn's? The report goes on to say "this examination is not optimized for the detection of gastrointestinal pathology." what the...

 

[steve55]

Not sure why you need the MR Enteroscopy when you did pillcam so soon before. MR Enterography will show the basic outline of intestine, whether there is inflammation or narrowing. Its not meant to show stuff like ulcers.

 

[Keralin]

My normal GI doc referred me to another specialist for evaluation because he felt my symptoms were far more severe than what the clinical findings were showing at that point. I got tagged with mild to moderate crohn's and didn't improve on asacol or entocort. So, I guess at this point they're grasping at straws or just enjoy torturing me

 

[valleysangel92]

It could be that they wanted to see if the inflammation went all the way through the intestinal walls - meaning that the outer walls are also inflamed and not just the internal, or they may have been looking for an obstruction or fistula. The pill cam can only see for a certain amount of time, after a few hours it stops working and so it can't record images of the full digestive tract. MREs however can be used to view the entire tract and are far less invasive than a colonoscopy.

As said above, they are not capable of showing things like ulcers and they cannot show the type of narrowing present i.e they can not distinguish between a narrowing caused by inflammation and one caused by scarring. Therefor they may still choose to perform a colonoscopy to get a more accurate picture.