Small bowel MRI enteroclysis or follow through: Which is optimal?

Figure 1 Images demonstrating good and poor proximal and distal small bowel (SB) distension. A: Axial T2 weighted HASTE image of the upper abdomen demonstrating good proximal SB distension; B: Coronal T2 weighted HASTE image demonstrating poor proximal SB distension; C: Axial T2 weighted HASTE image of the lower abdomen demonstrating good distal SB distension, abnormal bowel thickening and fistulous tracts between the abnormal bowel loops (circled); D: Axial T2 weighted HASTE image of the lower abdomen demonstrating poor distal SB distension.

Figure 2 Images demonstrating the effect of motion artefact. A: Coronal post gadolinium VIBE demonstrating good distension of SB loops with negligible artefact and distal SB wall thickening with strong contrast enhancement consistent with active inflammatory CD (circled); B: Coronal post gadolinium VIBE demonstrating significant motion artefact precluding assessment of contrast enhancement and motion insensitive sequences (HASTE and TruFISP) which are, however, of diagnostic quality (images not shown).