Objective Prospective evaluation of intestinal ultrasound (IUS) for disease monitoring of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) in routine medical practice. Design TRansabdominal Ultrasonography of the bowel in Subjects with IBD To monitor disease activity with UC (TRUST&UC) was a prospective, observational study at 42 German inflammatory bowel disease-specialised centres representing different care levels. Patients with a diagnosis of a proctosigmoiditis, left-sided colitis or pancolitis currently in clinical relapse (defined as Short Clinical Colitis Activity Index ≥5) were enrolled consecutively. Disease activity and vascularisation within the affected bowel wall areas were assessed by duplex/Colour Doppler ultrasonography. Results At baseline, 88.5% (n=224) of the patients had an increased bowel wall thickness (BWT) in the descending or sigmoid colon. Even within the first 2 weeks of the study, the percentage of patients with an increased BWT in the sigmoid or descending colon decreased significantly (sigmoid colon 89.3%–38.6%; descending colon 83.0%–42.9%; p<0.001 each) and remained low at week 6 and 12 (sigmoid colon 35.4% and 32.0%; descending colon 43.4% and 37.6%; p<0.001 each). Normalisation of BWT and clinical response after 12 weeks of treatment showed a high correlation (90.5% of patients with normalised BWT had symptomatic response vs 9.5% without symptomatic response; p<0.001). Conclusions IUS may be preferred in general practice in a point-of-care setting for monitoring the disease course and for assessing short-term treatment response. Our findings give rise to the assumption that monitoring BWT alone has the potential to predict the therapeutic response, which has to be verified in future studies.

中文翻译：

---

用于监测溃疡性结肠炎患者治疗反应的肠道超声：来自 TRUST&UC 研究的结果

目的 前瞻性评估肠道超声 (IUS) 在常规医疗实践中对溃疡性结肠炎 (UC) 患者的疾病监测。设计 IBD 患者肠道的经腹超声检查 为了监测 UC (TRUST&UC) 的疾病活动，是在 42 个德国炎症性肠病专业中心代表不同护理水平的前瞻性观察性研究。诊断为直肠乙状结肠炎、左侧结肠炎或全结肠炎的患者目前处于临床复发（定义为短期临床结肠炎活动指数≥5）被连续纳入。通过双工/彩色多普勒超声检查评估受影响肠壁区域内的疾病活动和血管形成。结果 在基线，88。5% (n=224) 的患者降结肠或乙状结肠的肠壁厚度 (BWT) 增加。即使在研究的前 2 周内，乙状结肠或降结肠 BWT 增加的患者百分比也显着下降（乙状结肠 89.3%–38.6%；降结肠 83.0%–42.9%；每个 p<0.001）并保持不变在第 6 周和第 12 周低（乙状结肠 35.4% 和 32.0%；降结肠 43.4% 和 37.6%；每个 p<0.001）。治疗 12 周后 BWT 的正常化和临床反应显示出高度相关性（90.5% 的 BWT 正常化患者有症状反应，9.5% 没有症状反应；p<0.001）。结论 IUS 在床旁护理环境中的一般实践中可能是首选，用于监测病程和评估短期治疗反应。