[Imaging in gastroenterology--what is new?]

In the last years there are a lot of developments in endoscopical, radiological and sonographical imaging techniques for example virtual colonoscopy, capsule endoscopy and contrast-enhanced sonography. The MR- or CT-colonography has a high sensitivity of about 90% in the detection of polyps > 1 cm. But what there is to be said against virtual colonoscopy as a routine examination is the need for bowel cleansing with an oral lavage and the high costs due to a long examination and evaluation time. The capsule endoscopy is a very interesting new imaging technique for the diagnostic evaluation of small bowel diseases. The capsule endoscopy is superior to push-enteroscopy, the gold-standard until now. But it is not clear, whether there is change in therapeutical procedures due to the results of the capsule endoscopy and whether the high costs for the examination are justified. The contrast-enhanced sonography improves especially the detection and characterization of solid liver lesions and some CT- and MR-examination will be unnecessary in the future.