Correlation Between Colonic Mural Apparent Diffusion Coefficient and Clinical/biochemical Markers of Inflammation in Acute Colitis

Shonit Punwani¹, Rehana Hafeez², Doug Pendse², Alan Bainbridge², Paul Boulos¹, Steve Halligan^1,2, Stuart Taylor^1,2

High mural T2 signal intensity has been previously reported to correlate with acute inflammation in the small bowel of patients with known inflammatory bowel disease. It is also possibly related to mucosal oedema. Diffusion weighted imaging is sensitive to changes in extra and intracellular water fractions. This study correlates colonic mural apparent diffusion coefficient measurements with clinical/biochemical markers of inflammation to determine whether ADC could potentially provide a non-ionising quantitative site specific assessment of colitis.