白浜 正文¹, 古賀 貴文¹, 石橋 大海², 内田 哲¹

Masafumi SHIRAHAMA¹, Takafumi KOGA¹, Hiromi ISHIBASHI², Satoshi UCHIDA¹

¹佐賀県立病院好生館内科, ²九州大学医学部第1内科

¹The Department of Internal Medicine, Saga Prefectural Hospital, ²The First Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kyushu University

キーワード : High-resolution, Ultrasound, Crohn's disease, Ulcerative colitis

Sonographic findings in eight patients with Crohn's disease were evaluated with high-resolution ultrasound. In all patients, the diseased bowel wall was clearly thickened, ranging from 6 to 14 mm thick (mean: 9 mm). The layered structure of the bowel wall was generally indistinct. Especially in patients with serious intestinal obstruction due to fibrosis, wall stratification was completely lost and the intestinal wall appeared to be uniformly hypoechoic. Ruggedness along the inner and outer margins of the bowel wall was another element of the findings. Ultrasound cannot substitute for barium studies or colonoscopies; however, it is a safe and useful alternative method in the diagnosis of Crohn's disease.