Evolving role of MRI in Crohn's disease.

MR enterography is playing an evolving role in the evaluation of small bowel Crohn's disease (CD). Standard MR enterography includes a combination of rapidly acquired T2 sequence, balanced steady-state acquisition, and contrast enhanced T1-weighted gradient echo sequence. The diagnostic performance of these sequences has been shown to be comparable, and in some respects superior, to other small bowel imaging modalities. The findings of CD on MR enterography have been well described in the literature. New and emerging techniques such as diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI), cinematography, and magnetization transfer, may lead to improved accuracy in characterizing the disease. These advanced techniques can provide quantitative parameters that may prove to be useful in assessing disease activity, severity, and response to treatment. In the future, MR enterography may play an increasing role in management decisions for patients with small bowel CD; however, larger studies are needed to validate these emerging MRI parameters as imaging biomarkers.