Magnetic resonance enterography findings as predictors of clinical outcome following antitumor necrosis factor treatment in small bowel Crohn's disease.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether specific magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) findings can predict outcome following commencement of antitumor necrosis factor (aTNF) in small bowel Crohn's disease (CD) PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a single-centre retrospective study of patients with CD who commenced aTNF (infliximab or adalimumab) between 2007 and 2013. Patients who had an MRE within 6 months before commencing aTNF were included. The primary end-point was the need for CD-related surgery. The secondary end-points were time to surgery and time to treatment failure. The relationship between these end-points, clinical variables and specific MRE findings were studied.

RESULTS

Four hundred and eighteen patients commenced aTNF for CD during the study period. Seventy-five patients had an MRE within 6 months before commencing aTNF (30 infliximab; 45 adalimumab). The median time from MRE to commencing aTNF was 43 days (IQR 19.5-87 days). Eighteen of 75 (24%) had surgery during a median follow-up of 16.7 months (IQR 9.0-30.1 months). Patients with small bowel stenosis (SBS) on MRE were at a significantly higher risk of requiring surgery: 12/18 (66.7%) versus 6/57 (10.5%) (P<0.001). Time to surgery was significantly shorter in patients with SBS on MRE (P<0.001). In a multivariate analysis, SBS (P<0.0001, hazard ratio 26.45, 95% confidence interval 5.45-128.49) and presence of penetrating complications (P=0.003, hazard ratio 36.53, 95% confidence interval 3.40-393.19) were associated independently with time to surgery.

CONCLUSIONS

SBS and penetrating complications on MRE are associated independently with a need for early surgery and treatment failure in patients commencing aTNF.