Table 5.

Advantages and disadvantages to current diagnostics for mucosal healing assessment

	Advantages	Disadvantages
Endoscopy	High sensitivity and specificity Histological assessment Management of complications (i.e. strictures)	Invasive Only for ileocolonic disease
MRE	Non-invasive small ± large bowel assessment identification of intra- and extra-luminal complications	Low specificity and NPV No histological assessment Unclear cost-effectiveness
VCE	Non-invasive Highly sensitive	Modest specificity Retention and incompletion rate No histological assessment Under estimate colonic severity Time consuming Not cost-effective
DAE	Visualization of small bowel Management of complications (i.e. strictures, VCE retention)	Invasiveness and complications Extra training and time consuming Utility limited to assessing persistent lesions despite medical therapy

MRE – magnetic resonance enterography; NPV – negative predictive value; VCE – video capsule endoscopy; DAE – device assisted enteroscopy