The bowel preparation for magnetic resonance enterography in patients with Crohn's disease: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Background: Adequate bowel preparation is required for magnetic resonance enterography (MRE), which can be achieved by administering contrast solution after mid-gut tubing or taking contrast solution orally. We present the design of randomized controlled trial (RCT) to compare the efficacy and compliance of bowel preparation between mid-gut tubing and oral administering for MRE in patients with Crohn's disease (CD). Methods/design: This is an open-label, multicenter RCT. Ninety-six patients with CD in need of MRE examination and mid-gut tubing (prepared for fecal microbiota transplantation and/or enteral nutrition), aged ≥ 14 years, will be included. Patients will be randomized 1:1 into either bowel preparation by oral administering (oral group) or bowel preparation through mid-gut transendoscopic enteral tubing (TET) (tubing group). The primary outcome measures are: (1) degree of discomfort before/during/after bowel preparation for MRE using a visual 5-grade scale (1 = few, 5 = very severe); and (2) grade of bowel distention evaluated by a 5-grade scale (1 = 0-20% segmental distention, 2 = 20-40% distention, 3 = 40-60% distention, 4 = 60-80% distention, 5 = 80-100% distention). The secondary outcome measure is the accuracy of lesion detection through MRE confirmed by colonoscopy which is evaluated by a 5-point scale. Discussion: The outcome of this study is expected to provide a novel effective clinical protocol of bowel preparation for MRE in patients with CD. We hope to highlight the concept of physician-patient satisfaction based on different methods of bowel preparation for MRE. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03541733. Registered on 30 May 2018.