Aytekin Oto1, Fang Zhu1, Kirti Kulkarni1, Masatoshi Hori1, Arda Kayhan1, Gregory S. Karczmar1, Jerrold R. Turner2, David Rubin3
1Department of Radiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; 2Department of Pathology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; 3Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of diffusion weighted MR imaging (DWI) in detection of bowel inflammation and investigate the changes in apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values in the inflamed bowel in Crohn`s disease. Eleven patients were included. Two radiologists reviewed DWI images and ADC maps to evaluate for inflammation in each bowel segment and measured ADC values. Endoscopy and pathology results were correlated with DWI findings. The results showed DWI was a feasible technique for detection of inflammation in patients with Crohn's disease. ADC values were decreased in the inflamed bowel segments indicating restricted diffusion.