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OBJECTIVES: Mucosal healing (MH) and deep remission (DR) are associated with improved outcomes in Crohn's disease (CD). However, most of the current data pertain to colonic MH and DR, whereas the evidence regarding the prevalence and impact of small bowel (SB) MH is scarce. The aim of this study was to to evaluate the prevalence of SBMH and DR in quiescent SBCD. METHODS: Patients with known SBCD in clinical remission (CDAI790. Clinico-biomarker remission was defined as a combination of clinical remission and normal biomarkers. DR was defined as a combination of clinico-biomarker remission and MH. RESULTS: Fifty-six patients with proven SB patency were enrolled; 52 (92.9%) patients were in clinical remission and 21 (40.4%) in clinico-biomarker remission. SBMH was demonstrated in 8/52 (15.4%) of patients in clinical remission. Moderate-to-severe SB inflammation was demonstrated in 11/52 (21.1%) of patients in clinical remission and in 1/21 (4.7%) of patients in clinical and biomarker remission. Only 7/52 (13.5%) patients were in DR. CONCLUSIONS: SB inflammation is detected in the majority of CD patients in clinical and biomarker remission. SBMH and DR were rare and were independent of treatment modality. Our findings represent the true inflammatory burden in quiescent patients with SBCD.
Kopylov et al. (2015) studied this question.