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Purpose: The clinical utility of positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) in comparison to standard workup in patients with known or suspected inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is unknown.Procedures: Clinical data were collected on seven patients with known or suspected IBD undergoing PET/CT. Standard workup included history, physical exam, laboratory tests, colonoscopy and/or cross-sectional imaging. We divided the intestine into five regions [small bowel and four colon (ascending, transverse, descending and rectosigmoid)] and graded relative standard uptake values 0, 1, 2 or 3 by comparison to the liver, using a region-of-interest analysis (0 = no activity, 1 = liver, 2 and 3 = significant inflammation).Results: In patients 1 and 2, PET/CT demonstrated more activity than we thought clinically present. The other patients avoided unnecessary escalation or initiation of IBD therapy based on PET/CT results. Compared with standard workup, all seven patients had superior results when therapeutic decisions were based on PET/CT.Conclusions: We found PET/CT to be very useful in diagnosis and management in patients with known or suspected IBD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the appropriate 2-deoxy-2-[(18)F]fluoro-D-glucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) determination in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) before and after clinical improvement to see if this determination correlates with clinical activity.Procedures: We performed PET-computed tomography (PET/CT) on five patients before and after successful medical therapy in patients with moderately active IBD. Each patient had five bowel segments scored (0-3) for the appropriate FDG-PET determination.Results: There were five patients [Crohn's disease (CD) = 3, ulcerative colitis = 2] who were studied an average of 437 days (range, 77-807) after initial PET/CT scan. All patients showed significant improvement in physician global assessment scores (p = 0.004) and underwent repeat PET/CT. The total score of all segments was 32 pretreatment and 14 posttreatment (p < 0.01). Of 11 pretreatment active segments, nine (82%) segments either became inactive or displayed decreased activity, while two showed no change (p < 0.001).Conclusion: Appropriate FDG-PET determination decreases with successful treatment of inflammation in active IBD and correlates with symptom improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]