ECCO Topical Review on Optimising Reporting of Cross-Sectional Imaging, 2020–2021 – Report on the Consensus Meeting
Antonino Spinelli, GuiCom Member
 Antonino Spinelli© ECCO |
This year, the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO) and the European Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (ESGAR) combined their expertise and resources to generate a Topical Review with a set of current practice positions to facilitate the correct and comprehensive reporting of imaging exams for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) patients.
Imaging reports are one of the most important tools for clinicians, surgeons and technical staff, and this is particularly true for those caring for IBD patients, who often present with a variety of complicated clinical features.
To date there has been no standardised structure, contents or terminology for radiological reports of IBD patients and the absence of such standardisation may have been affecting the efficacy and precision of therapeutic decisions. We therefore aimed to draw together evidence and recommendations on how to report the key radiological findings.
The project leadership was shared by Torsten Kucharzik and me for ECCO, and by Jordi Rimola and Jeroen Tielbeek for ESGAR. It involved 16 representatives, divided into four different working groups (WGs) addressing different areas of intervention, including assessment of inflammation, assessment of IBD-related complications, assessment of perianal Crohn’s Disease with magnetic resonance and assessment of perianal Crohn’s Disease with ultrasound imaging.
Each WG member developed one or more topics in their area of interest, identifying the key elements to include in the reports and relevant gaps of knowledge. The consensus meeting took place virtually on March 19, 2021.
During the meeting, the WG members homogenised the recommendations and discussed the most challenging issues. Although standardisation of reporting was the main focus of this Topical Review, the final discussion extended beyond a mere checklist of elements to be included in the radiological reports: the project was, therefore, an invaluable opportunity to share thoughts and ideas among experts with different backgrounds, and to identify future directions in the improvement of clinical practice.