Authors: Federico Caobelli Maria Beatrice Panarotto Francesca Andreoli Alberto Ravelli Antonio De Agostini Raffaele Giubbini
Publish Date: 2010/07/29
Volume: 170, Issue: 1, Pages: 51-57
Abstract
Although endoscopy with biopsy is the gold standard for the diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease IBD this procedure is invasive and its repetition is stressful especially in children The purpose of this study was to evaluate prospectively the role of 99mTcHMPAOlabeled granulocyte scintigraphy in the diagnosis and followup of pediatric IBD and its possible use as an alternative to colonoscopy to determine the disease extent and severity beyond its ability to differentiate ulcerative colitis from Crohns disease During a 10year period 52 children aging between 2 and 17 years median 1109 years were subjected to 99mTcHMPAO granulocyte scan 7–28 days from conventional diagnostic tests and the results were compared with endoscopic and bioptic results Disease severity was graded by the focal uptake intensity versus iliac bone uptake Scan Activity Index and compared with Endoscopy Mayo Score In 15 out of 16 patients IBD diagnosis was obtained with a full correspondence of location and severity of lesions respectively in 14 out of 16 and 13 out of 16 while in 31 out of 36 patients IBD was correctly excluded sensitivity of 937 specificity of 861 and negative predictive value of 964 During the followup all relapses 24 and remissions 13 were correctly recognized sensibility and specificity of 100 In conclusion 99mTcHMPAO granulocyte scan is an accurate minimally invasive technique with very good accuracy able to diagnose and to grade the intensity and extent of the disease it is also a useful tool in the followup of pediatric IBD where it could reliably replace the invasive endoscopic assessment in most casesThe undersigned authors transfer the ownership of copyright to European Journal of Pediatrics should their work be published in this journal They state that the article is original has not been submitted for publication in other journals and has not already been published They state that they are responsible for the research they have designed and carried out and that they have participated in drafting and revising the manuscript submitted which they approve in its context They also state that the research reported in the paper was undertaken in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration and the international principles governing research on animals
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