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Increasing attention is being paid to the amount of radiation exposure that some young patients with inflammatory bowel disease receive (IBD) from repeated computed tomography (CT) scans. To examine this issue, researchers identified 152 patients with Crohn disease (CD) and 130 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) who visited an emergency department in a tertiary center over a 3-year period.
Abdominal CT scan was used in 49% of patients with CD and 19% with UC. CT findings often affected therapeutic decisions: for example, in patients with CD, imaging led to drainage or surgery for penetrating disease in 4% and to therapy for bowel obstruction in 19%. In both groups, CT led to intervention for a non-IBD finding in about 13%, hospitalization…