Application of ultra micro angiography in assessment of activity of Crohn's disease in pediatric patients
10.3760/cma.j.cn131148-20250416-00210
- VernacularTitle:超微血流成像技术在评估儿童克罗恩病炎症活动性中的应用价值
- Author:
Ying WANG
1
;
Haixia FENG
;
Li WEI
;
Rui CHENG
;
Yunlin HUANG
;
Shiwen WANG
;
Yueyang GUAN
;
Ying WANG
;
Yi DONG
Author Information
1. 上海交通大学医学院附属新华医院超声科，上海 200092
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Ultra micro angiography;
pediatric;
Crohn's disease;
Activity;
Color Doppler flow imaging
- From:
Chinese Journal of Ultrasonography
2025;34(9):776-783
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Objective:To investigate the value of ultra micro angiography（UMA）imaging in evaluating the inflammation activity of pediatric Crohn's disease（CD）patients.Methods:In this prospective study，71 pediatric CD patients confirmed by clinical symptoms，laboratory and ileocolonoscopical results who planed to accept infliximab injection treatments in Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine from April to December 2024 were included. The CD patients were included and divided into 3 groups according to the pediatric Crohn's disease activity index（PCDAI）score：inactive CD group（ n=44），mild CD group（ n=17），and moderate-to-severe CD group（ n=10）. Before treatment，pediatric CD patients underwent B mode ultrasound（BMUS），the parameters such as bowel wall thickness（BWT），bowel wall stratification，mesenteric lymph nodes（MLNs），and existence of mesenteric fat hypertrophy（MFH）were recorded. Color Doppler flow imaging（CDFI）and UMA were used to evaluate the blood flow in the most thickened diseased bowel wall using Limberg scores. The diffierences of the above parameters among the 3 groups were compared. The diagnostic performance of UMA and CDFI in assessing the inflammatory activity of pediatric CD was evaluated. Results:There were statistically significant differences in BWT among the 3 groups（all P<0.05）. However，there were no statistically significant differences in MLNs among the 3 groups（all P>0.05）. Compared with the inactive CD，there were statistically significant differences in bowel wall stratification and MFH in both the mild and moderate-to-severe CD groups（all P<0.05）. When assessing bowel wall blood flow signals using CDFI，there was no statistically significant difference in blood flow signals in the bowel wall of the mild CD compared with the inactive CD（ P>0.05）. However，the blood flow signals in the bowel wall of the moderate-to-severe CD was significantly increased（ P<0.05）. There was also statistically significant difference in blood flow signals in the bowel wall between the mild and moderate-to-severe CD groups（ P<0.05）. When assessing bowel wall blood flow using UMA，there were statistically significant differences in blood flow signals in the bowel wall among all 3 groups（all P<0.05）. As the degree of inflammation increased，the blood flow signals in the bowel wall also increased significantly. ROC analysis revealed that diagnostic performance of the UMA-BMUS model was significantly better than that of the CDFI-BMUS model（AUC 0.945 vs. 0.873，sensitivity 88.9% vs. 74.1%，specificity 97.7% vs. 95.5%；all P<0.05）. Conclusions:By sensitively depicting the low-velocity and tiny blood flow signals of the inflamed bowel wall，UMA is an effective noninvasive imaging method to make semi-quantitative evaluation of the activity of pediatric Crohn's disease.
