Feasibility of In Vivo MR Elastography of Mesenteric Adipose Tissue in Crohn’s Disease

Although there is growing evidence that functional involvement and structural changes of mesenteric adipose tissue (MAT) influence the course of Crohn's disease (CD), its viscoelastic properties remain elusive. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the viscoelastic properties of MAT in CD using MR elastography (MRE). In this prospective proof-of-concept study, 31 subjects (CD: n = 11, healthy controls: n = 20) were investigated using MRE at 1.5Tesla with frequencies of 40-70Hz. Volumes of interest in MAT were drawn adjacent to CD lesions (MAT CD ) and on the opposite side without adjacent bowel lesions in patients (MAT CD_Opp ) and controls (MAT CTRL ). A statistically significant decrease in mean shear wave speed (SWS) of 7% was found for MAT CD_Opp vs. MAT CTRL (0.76 ± 0.05m/s vs. 0.82 ± 0.04m/s, p = 0.012), whereas there was a nonsignificant trend with an 8% increase for MAT CD vs. MAT CD_Opp (0.82 ± 0.07m/s vs. 0.76 ± 0.05m/s, p = 0.098) and no difference for MAT CD vs. MAT CTRL . Preliminary AUC analysis showed diagnostic accuracy in detecting CD to be excellent for SWS of MAT CD_Opp (AUC = 0.82) but poor for SWS of MAT CD (AUC = 0.52). This study demonstrates the feasibility of MRE of MAT and presents preliminary reference values for CD patients and healthy controls. Our results motivate further studies for the biophysical characterization of MAT in inflammatory bowel disease.