Advances in radiologic evaluation of small bowel diseases

There are various methods that could be used for small bowel imaging. Although conventional enteroclysis has a high sensitivity in the diagnosis of most of the small bowel diseases, it cannot provide any direct information about the mural-extramural diseases and the other abdominal structures. Besides, enteroclysis-based techniques have risk of additional radiation exposure, and they are poorly tolerated because placement of nasojejunal tube is required. New enterographic methods have been developed, and the number of enterographic techniques increased significantly in the recent years to overcome those limitations. The other modalities including ultrasound, small bowel follow-through, or capsule-endoscopy are often used as complementary methods in evaluation of the small bowel diseases. In this review, technique and clinic details, advantages, and disadvantages of the radiologic techniques that are used in the diagnosis of small bowel diseases, and the imaging findings of common pathologic conditions were discussed in the light of current literature.