[Non-invasive follow up of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases]

The management of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) is widely guided by biomarkers and cross-sectional imaging, which represent non-invasive tools for making therapeutic decision. The measurement of CRP is widely used in daily practice and is useful to identify a flare, to follow the response to therapy, and to predict relapse. The dosage of fecal calprotectin is better correlated with the severity of endoscopic lesions when compared with CRP and is overall more accurate to identify an active IBD and to predict a relapse. The measurement of trough levels and antidrug antibodies is useful in case of loss of response and some algorithms have been proposed for a personalized and optimized therapy. Monitoring IBD patients with entero-MRI is a standard allowing to assess disease activity and extension of the lesions and also to detect complications. The optimal frequency of the dosage of biomarkers and of MRI warrants to be determined.