IBD
Intestinal Ultrasound
May 19, 2022
in IBD
Has your GI ever done an intestinal ultrasound on you to target your treatment and monitor your IBD?
Intestinal Ultrasound Ushers In New Era of IBD Treatment (mountsinai.org)
Tagged:
1 - 7 of 7 Replies
I am so glad you brought this up as it is a hot topic. I am a care partner to both a husband and son living with Crohn's disease. The former is out of commission for days following a colonoscopy due to the triggered sensitivity of his system post surgical resection and other contributing factors. Regardless, I would love to see the intestinal ultrasound utilized more in general both in pediatrics as well as adult as it is less invasive, clearly. While I have asked months ago, it wasn't being utilized for either peds or adults at the facility we go to, a state of the art specialized IBD clinic. I am revisiting this topic with them and advocating more heavily for its use, especially in light of the increased data on it's accuracy in the assessment of disease activity, extent, and evaluating disease related complications, namely strictures, fistulae and abscesses.
Incidentally, thank you for including that link. What I am finding is that introducing an intestinal ultrasound program toward elevating and improving the level of care in IBD requires a great deal of institutional support and impetus from the top down. Not just convincing your provider. I love this quote from your inserted link as it sums a great deal up and includes MRI and CT in addition to the colonoscopy I brought up and, moreover, attests to its use being a no brainer otherwise.
“Intestinal ultrasound takes the guesswork out of decision-making for physicians and eliminates the need for expensive MRI and CT imaging and invasive testing like a colonoscopy,” says Marla Dubinsky, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, and Medicine (Gastroenterology), Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “For patients, it’s a riskless and simple procedure that gives them the information they need on the spot to feel confident that their IBD is under control.”
@LightsCameraCrohns Have you?
Care Partner of Adult
This all makes perfect sense. Just days ago, my son (who has UC) ended up wtih an ultrasound to confirm kidney stones. So, of course, it would be an excellent tool for better diagnosis of IBD issues. I fear that, once again, cost comes into the picture in determining a physician's willingness to consider ultrasound as a default method if insurance companies won't pay. But to that I would ask, but at what REAL cost??? :-(
My previous GI at the University of Michigan had me do one years ago as a part of a study. It seems like a great idea. I loved that it caused me zero pain, was non invasive, and didn't take long to do. I hate everything involved with CTE scans, MREs, and colonoscopies that anything else would be an amazing tool to have in our toolbox for monitoring disease progress.
Patient
I love to see new tech like this. Every new advancement is a chance for someone to have an easier journey that those before them. I'd be down for this because I've had a few awful experiences with CTs and I'd prefer to never do that again if I have a choice.
Very interesting, Natalie, and thanks for sharing! I have had an intestinal ultrasound done before and it wasn't very conclusive in terms of IBD results. However, having an extra imaging option that's cheaper and easier for patients to do does make sense. Let's hope it helps the community!