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Background/Aims The study objective is to investigate the ultrasound features that allow suspecting the presence of submucosal fat deposition, called the fat halo sign (FHS), in the intestinal wall of patients with Crohn’s disease. Methods Computed tomography (CT) examinations over a period of 10 years were reviewed for the presence of the FHS in the bowel wall. A measurement of less than –10 Hounsfield units was regarded as indicative of fat. We included only patients who had undergone ultrasound examinations 3 months before or after CT. The study cohort group comprised 68 patients. Wall and submucosal thickness were measured on longitudinal ultrasound sections. A receiver operating characteristic curve was constructed to determine the best cutoff of ultrasound submucosal wall thickness value for predicting FHS in the bowel wall determined on CT. Results The FHS was present in 22 patients (31%) on CT. There were significant differences between submucosal thickness of patients with FHS and patients without FHS (4.19 mm vs. 2.41 mm). From the receiver operating characteristic curve, a threshold value of 3.1 mm of submucosal thickness had the best sensitivity and specificity to suspect FHS (95.5% and 89.1%, respectively; area under the curve, 0.962), with an odds ratio of 172. All of 16 patients with a submucosal thickness >3.9 mm had FHS. Conclusions FHS in patients with Crohn’s disease can be suspected on ultrasound in cases with marked thickening of the submucosa layer. In these cases, the activity of the disease should be measured by other parameters such as the color Doppler.

Background/Aims Tight control of inflammation and adjustment of treatment if activity persists is the current strategy for the management of Crohn’s disease (CD). The usefulness of fecal calprotectin (FC) in isolated involvement of the small intestine in CD is controversial. To assess the usefulness of FC to determine the inflammatory activity detected by intestinal ultrasonography (IUS) in ileal CD. Methods Patients with exclusively ileal involvement CD who underwent IUS and an FC were prospectively included. Simple ultrasound index was used to determine inflammatory activity. The usual statistical tests for comparison of diagnostic techniques were used. Results One hundred and five patients were included, IUS showed inflammatory activity in 59% of patients and complications in 18.1%. FC showed a significant correlation with IUS in the weak range (Spearman coefficient r=0.502; P