Magnetic Resonance Enterography in 300 Known Cases of Crohn’s Disease: An Initial Report from a Referral Center in Iran

BACKGROUND Magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) has become the modality of choice in assessment of patients with Crohn's disease (CD). We aimed to present our experience on 300 patients with CD who underwent MRE during the first 30 months after setting up MRE for the first time in a referral center in Iran. METHODS Patients with a definite diagnosis of CD based on either ileocolonoscopy or histopathological studies were included in the final report and categorized into four phenotypes of inactive, active, stricturing, and penetrating disease. RESULTS This was a case series study on 300 patients with known CD out of 594 referred subjects. The most prevalent phenotype was inactive observed in 162 (54.0%) patients followed by stricturing in 44 (14.7%), active in 40 (13.3%), penetrating in 27(9%), and active on chronic in 27 (9%) cases. The number of referred patients increased from 51 cases in the first 6 months to 165 in the last 6 months. CONCLUSION This study presents the first report on the application of MRE in Iran as superb modality for management of CD. The growing number of referred patients indicates that MRE has been successful in addressing the most critical concerns of clinicians on determining the dominant disease phenotype.