Morbus Crohn: New imaging technique for effective therapy

Patients suffering from Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammatory intestinal disorder, develop painful constrictions in the bowel. Due to a lack of methods until now, these complications cannot be characterised with sufficient precision to initiate targeted treatment. An interdisciplinary research group at MedUni Vienna has investigated a new imaging technique that can improve the treatment of intestinal strictures. The results of the study were recently published in the renowned journal "Radiology". Intestinal strictures are a common problem in patients with Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that affects over 20,000 people in Austria. These strictures lead to cramping pain and digestive problems and therefore practically always require treatment. While purely inflammatory strictures respond very well to drug therapies, fibrotic narrowing, i.e. those associated with irreversible tissue changes, require surgical intervention.