Feasibility of In Vivo MR Elastography of Mesenteric Adipose Tissue in Crohn’s Disease

Abstract

Abstract Although there is growing evidence that functional involvement and structural changes of mesenteric adipose tissue (MAT) influence the course of Crohn's disease (CD), its viscoelastic properties remain elusive. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the viscoelastic properties of MAT in CD using MR elastography (MRE). In this prospective proof-of-concept study, 31 subjects (CD: n = 11, healthy controls: n = 20) were investigated using MRE at 1.5Tesla with frequencies of 40-70Hz. Volumes of interest in MAT were drawn adjacent to CD lesions (MATCD) and on the opposite side without adjacent bowel lesions in patients (MATCD_Opp) and controls (MATCTRL). A statistically significant decrease in mean shear wave speed (SWS) of 7% was found for MATCD_Opp vs. MATCTRL (0.76 ± 0.05m/s vs. 0.82 ± 0.04m/s, p = 0.012), whereas there was a nonsignificant trend with an 8% increase for MATCD vs. MATCD_Opp (0.82 ± 0.07m/s vs. 0.76 ± 0.05m/s, p = 0.098) and no difference for MATCD vs. MATCTRL. Preliminary AUC analysis showed diagnostic accuracy in detecting CD to be excellent for SWS of MATCD_Opp (AUC = 0.82) but poor for SWS of MATCD (AUC = 0.52). This study demonstrates the feasibility of MRE of MAT and presents preliminary reference values for CD patients and healthy controls. Our results motivate further studies for the biophysical characterization of MAT in inflammatory bowel disease.