Assessment of stricturing Crohn's disease: Current clinical practice and future avenues

Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic remittent idiopathic disease. Although the early phase of the disease is commonly characterized by inflammation-driven symptoms, such as diarrhea, the frequency of fibrostenotic complications in patients with CD increases over the long-term course of the disease. This review presents the current diagnostic options for assessing CD-associated strictures. In addition to the endoscopic evaluation of CD strictures, this review summarizes the currently available imaging modalities, including ultrasound and cross-sectional imaging techniques. In addition to stricture detection, differentiating between the primarily inflammatory strictures and the predominantly fibrotic ones is essential for selecting the appropriate treatment strategy (anti-inflammatory medical treatment vs endoscopical or surgical approaches). Therefore, recent imaging advances, such as contrast-enhanced ultrasound and ultrasound elastography, contribute to the development of non-invasive non-radiating imaging of CD-associated strictures. Finally, novel magnetic resonance imaging techniques, such as diffusion-weighted, motility and magnetization transfer imaging, as well as F-18-FDG PET/CT, molecular imaging approaches and biomarkers, are critically reviewed with regard to their potential role in assessing stricturing CD.