Small-Bowel Tuberculosis: A Comparative Study of MR Enterography and Small-Bowel Follow-Through

The purpose of this article is to describe the MR enterographic findings of small-bowel tuberculosis (TB) and to compare the imaging findings of small-bowel follow-through (SBFT) with those of MR enterography.

Thirty patients (20 male and 10 female) presenting with suspected intestinal TB were enrolled in this prospective study. MR enterography and SBFT were performed within 2 weeks of each other.

Nineteen of the 30 patients were confirmed to have TB. Of these 19 patients, MR enterography depicted ileocecal involvement in nine patients (47%), mural thickening in any other segment of the small bowel in 11 patients (58%), lymphadenopathy in 17 patients (89%), ascites in five patients (26%), and peritoneal enhancement in six patients (32%). In addition, MRI also depicted a splenic granuloma, spondylodiscitis with prevertebral abscess, and small-bowel perforation with collections in one patient each. There was good correlation between MR enterography and SBFT in the depiction of ileocecal involvement and small-bowel mural thickening. However, MR enterography was able to show a higher number of strictures than was SBFT. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value in the diagnosis of TB were 100%, 73%, 86%, and 100%, respectively, for MR enterography and 88%, 70%, 83%, and 78%, respectively, for SBFT. The difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.24).

MR enterography depicts intestinal as well as extraintestinal manifestations of TB. The intestinal manifestations correlate well with SBFT findings. MR enterography has the potential to become the one-stop radiation-free tool in the evaluation of small-bowel TB.