Congress:
EuroSafe Imaging 2020
Keywords:
Performed at one institution, Observational, Retrospective, Education and training, Dosimetric comparison, Education, Diagnostic procedure, Audit and standards, CT, Radioprotection / Radiation dose, Gastrointestinal tract, GI Tract
Authors:
A. S. Linhares Moreira, M. Diniz, M. D. G. A. Afonso
DOI:
10.26044/esi2020/ESI-13790
Background/introduction
Chron’s disease (CD) is a primarily gastrointestinal inflammatory disease.
Any portion of the gastrointestinal tract may be involved, but the small bowel is affected alone in about a third of patients and the terminal ileum is affected in 90% of patients.
Pathologically, CD is characterized by transmural granulomatous inflammation.
The diagnosis of CD is based on a combination of clinical, laboratory, endoscopic, histological, and imaging findings, with no single diagnostic test allowing unequivocal diagnosis.
Imaging is used alongside endoscopic techniquesand plays a role in the diagnosis, allowing the distinction between CD and ulcerative colitis in some cases, in the assessment of extension and activity of the disease, in the detection of extra-intestinal manifestations and complications of the disease and in the monitorization of treatment response.
The main imaging studies used in the assessment of CD are computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). CT is more widely available, has lower costs and is more frequently employed when patients present acutely, its downside is the use of radiation. MRI has higher costs and is more commonly used in the stable outpatient setting and is devoid of ionizing radiation.
The effective dose is used as an indicator of potential radiobiological detriment. The risk of cancer is thought to be correlated with effective doses of radiation >100 mSv.
Our aim is to assess the radiation burden to which CD patients are subjected due to CT examinations, along with its risks.