The Value Of Endoscopic Ultrasonography In The Evaluation The Activity Of Crohn's Disease By Measuring The Submucosal Thicknesss

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical value of endoscopic ultrasonography(EUS)in the evaluation the activity of Crohn's disease(CD)by measuring the submucosal thickness preliminarily.METHODS:10 patients with active stage of CD and 10 healthy controls(HC)underwent EUS were recruited.SES-CD and submucosal thickness at the most severe lesions were measured and documented respectively.Patients were measured the same site of bowel wall when entry remission stage.In order to analyze the relationship between the submucosal thickness and the stage of CD,the comparison of submucosal thickness among patients with active stage of CD,patients with remission stage and HC were conducted.And the cut-off value was established to determine stage of CD.RESULTS:The average submucosal thickness of active,remission CDpatients and HC was 6.48±1.95 mm,2.47±1.08 mm and 1.14±0.11 mm respectively(P<0.01).The correlation analysis showed that submucosal thickness had a significant correlation with both CDAI(r=0.708,P<0.01)and SES-CD(r=0.807,P<0.01).Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve analysis was used for 10 cases of CD patients and the area under the curve was0.985(P<0.01).3.85 mm was regarded as the cut-off value of submucosal thickness,as the sensitivity and specificity reached 100% and90%,respectively,and the Youden's index was 0.9.CONCLUSION:Measuring Gastrointestinal submucosal thickness by EUS could be helpful in assessing the stage of CD and guiding clinical treatment.