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Mucosal healing is a target for patients with Crohn's disease. However, frequent endoscopy to evaluate disease activity is invasive, time-intensive, and not always well tolerated by patients.

Bowel ultrasound represents a noninvasive alternative tool to assess disease progression. In this study recently published in , Allocca et al. found that bowel ultrasound was able to accurately detect inflammatory bowel disease activity and predict a negative course of disease over 12 months.

With minimal invasiveness and low cost in mind, bowel ultrasound should be considered for incorporation into standard practice to assess and monitor Crohn's disease progression.

Melinda Engevik, PhD, is an assistant professor at Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

You can read an interview with the lead study author here, and the abstract of the study here.