Bowel Damage in Crohn's Disease: Direct Comparison of Ultrasonography-based and Magnetic Resonance- based Lemann Index

Methods: We prospectively evaluated all consecutive patients with CD referred to our IBD Unit. All patients had undergone endoscopy, US and MR within 1 month. US-LI and MR-LI were calculated by scoring previous surgery, location, extension, and intestinal complications. Furthermore, we evaluated the association between LI and: CD duration, Harvey-Bradshaw index, and other relevant clinical features. In accordance with recent literature, an LI >4.8 was considered indicative of BD.

Background: The Lemann index (LI), calculated by magnetic resonance (MR) or computed tomography enterography in association with endoscopy, was developed to assess bowel damage (BD) in Crohn's disease (CD). Our aim was to investigate the concordance between ultrasonography-based Lemann index (US-LI) and magnetic resonance-based Lemann index (MR-LI).