MRE vs EUS for proximal small bowel inflammation

What is known

• MRE identifies small bowel Crohn's with accuracy similar to or better than prior series and reliably shows fistulation/abscess, but discrete proximal small bowel lesions may not always be detected. ¹
• Proximal small bowel distension at MRE is often inadequate with standard oral-contrast protocols, which is the key limitation for jejunal disease detection. ²
• MR enteroclysis improves proximal/jejunal distension over oral-contrast MRE, though improved distension did not translate into higher diagnostic yield in one small study. ^2,3

What is unknown / caveats

• No retrieved study compares MRE against endoscopic ultrasound
• Endoscopic ultrasound for proximal small bowel is not addressed in the corpus
• The comparator you asked about, endoscopic ultrasound, is absent from the retrieved evidence, so the specific comparison cannot be answered.

References

1. Fallis SA, Murphy P, Sinha R, Hawker P, Gladman L, Busby K, Sanders S. Magnetic resonance enterography in Crohn's disease: a comparison with the findings at surgery. Colorectal Dis. 2013. PMID: 23869486.

2. Bekendam MIJ, Puylaert CAJ, Phoa SKSS, Nio CY, Stoker J. Shortened oral contrast preparation for improved small bowel distension at MR enterography. Abdom Radiol (NY). 2017. PMID: 28393302.

3. Masselli G, Casciani E, Polettini E, Gualdi G. Comparison of MR enteroclysis with MR enterography and conventional enteroclysis in patients with Crohn's disease. Eur Radiol. 2008. PMID: 17899102.

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Draft, generated by the IBDology RAG and not yet clinician-reviewed. Answers are grounded in the retrieved literature listed above; a high faithfulness score means the answer matches its sources, not that the sources are correct.