Less invasive device monitors Crohn’s disease
Sask. doctor imports ‘tool’ from Europe
A Saskatchewan doctor is introducing a new technology that may reduce the amount of invasive diagnostic procedures patients with Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis regularly face.
The Saskatoon City Hospital Foundation recently purchased an intestinal ultrasound machine, which will be a part of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease clinic. The intestinal ultrasound program is new to the University of Saskatchewan and Dr. Tom Guzowski is using it to scan patients with advanced Crohn’s and colitis. At the start, he expects to scan 1520 patients a week. The machine is similar to the kind radiologists use, Guzowski said, but it creates higher definition images.
Guzowski, a gastroenterologist, spent time working abroad. While working in the Middle East, he first encountered intestinal ultrasound technology. He worked with doctors from Germany, from whom he learned some gastroenterologists in Europe sometimes wheeled around ultrasound machines to patients’ bed-sides to use.
“This tool that I brought here, that service we’re providing that’s called intestinal ultrasounds, is a perfect example of this bedside ultrasound that is done by clinicians like myself,” he said.
Intestinal ultrasound technology isn’t a good tool for cancer screening, Guzowski said, but it will be most useful for following up with patients who have Crohn’s and colitis. It will allow doctors to see changes, even minimal ones. Doctors often use colonoscopies, a more invasive procedure, to monitor patients. Guzowski said the tissue viewed in a colonoscopy may look normal, but there may be underlying issues the colonoscope may not pick up.
“With the ultrasound, I can see through all the layers of the intestine,” he said. The intestinal ultrasounds are not meant to replace previous technologies, however.
The technology, in combination with other tests, could be used to diagnose Crohn’s disease or colitis, or even rule them out.
“My hope is that with the application of this technology, we can reduce the use of some of the other tests. We will never be able to replace colonoscopies, but hopefully we can decrease the need for colonoscopies for someone who is already getting regular tests,” he said.
The machine is valued at around $200,000.