Silvio Mazziotti – författare

This second edition is primarily dedicated to MR-Enterography, an imaging modality whose reliability for intestinal assessment in patients suffering from inflammatory bowel diseases has gained increasing consensus.

The performance of this technique has been significantly enlarged over the last years, due to its undoubted advantages in terms of exhaustive evaluation of the abdominal cavity and safeness due to the lack of radiation exposure. 

The first part is focused on MR-Enterography standard protocol. Nevertheless, additional sequences, technical novelties and common pitfalls are reported and discussed.  

In the second section, the typical intestinal and extra-intestinal findings related to Crohn’s disease are described in detail. In this edition, more emphasis has been put on practical topics, useful in the daily clinical practice: anatomical changes after surgical procedures, structured reporting and emerging clinical applications over inflammatory bowel diseases.

Another part is dedicated to Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the anal canal, including technical aspects and clinical implications.

The text is largely complemented by diagnostic images. Nonetheless, at the end of the book 30 illustrated cases show different clinical scenarios evaluated with MR-Enterography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the anal canal.

In recent years, there has been huge interest in developing new methods that offer improved accuracy for the detection of small bowel pathology, and in particular for the assessment of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Cross-sectional imaging, such as CT and MR, has advantages over traditional barium fluoroscopic techniques in terms of direct visualization of the bowel wall and improved visualization of extraluminal findings and complications. This means a complete change in the diagnostic approach to the patient with IBD: from analysis of the bowel surface to direct evaluation of parietal alterations and assessment of peri and extraintestinal involvement. The ideal imaging test is reproducible, well tolerated by patients and, above all, free of ionizing radiation. MR enterography, currently performed only in a few reference centers, meets these criteria and offers accurate diagnosis, particularly in respect of the wide spectrum of intra and extraintestinal complications of IBD.

This book provides a thorough overview of the indications, techniques, diagnostic advantages and limitations of MR enterography. Particular attention is paid to patient preparation in relation to the particular study type and to the potential advantages of the most up-to-date MR studies in specific cases, e.g., allergy or renal failure. A separate chapter is devoted to MR of perianal region for the detection and staging of perianal fistula, a common complication in patients with Crohn’s disease. Numerous high-quality illustrations are included and help to ensure that the book will be a valuable source of information for every radiologist involved in abdominal MR imaging.