Objective: Gut inflammation is a common feature shared by inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and the spondyloarthropathies (SpA). The aim of the present study was to compare the reliability of a number of non-invasive investigations for the detection of an inflammatory process of the intestine.
Methods: Forty-two children were studied: (i) patients with a previous diagnosis of IBD (group A); (ii) patients with suspected IBD (group B); and (iii) patients with predominantly rheumatological manifestations associated with gastrointestinal symptoms (group C). All the patients were studied using 99mTechnetium-HMPAO labelled white cell scanning (99mTc-WCS), and abdominal ultrasound (US). In addition the ESR, serum class A immunoglobulins, faecal occult blood (OB) and faecal alpha 1-antitripsin level (F alpha 1-AT) were determined. Colonoscopy plus multiple biopsies and radiological study of the intestine were used as gold standards.
Results: 99mTc-WCS showed the highest sensitivity (85%) and specificity (100%) in detecting the presence of gut inflammation. This was followed by ESR and faecal occult blood (63% sensitivity, 44% specificity), F alpha 1-AT (43% sensitivity, 44% specificity) and IgA (42% sensitivity, 88% specificity). Ultrasound was informative in 28% of the active/affected patients, with a specificity of 75%.
Conclusion: Although ileo-pancolonscopy remains the gold standard for the histological characterisation of gut inflammation, 99mTc-WCS represents the most reliable non-invasive test for its detection.