Small bowel imaging - still a radiologic approach?

Background: In recent years, there has been renewed interest in small bowel imaging using a variety of radiologic or endoscopic techniques. This article gives an overview and comparison of old and new techniques used in small bowel imaging. New imaging methods as computed tomography (CT), CT enteroclysis (CTEc), CT enterography (CTEg), ultrasound (US), contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS), US enteroclysis, US enterography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), MR enteroclysis (MREc) and MR enterography (MREg) are compared with the older techniques such as small- bowel follow- through (SBFT), conventional enteroclysis (CE) and endoscopic techniques including push enteroscopy, ezofagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD), sonde enteroscopy, ileocolonoscopy, double-balloon enteroscopy, intraoperative enteroscopy and wireless capsule enteroscopy (WCE).

Superparamagnetic maghemite nanoparticles from solid-state synthesis - their functionalization towards peroral MRI contrast agent and magnetic carrier for trypsin immobilization.

Nearly monodispersed superparamagnetic maghemite nanoparticles (15-20nm) were prepared by a one-step thermal decomposition of iron(II) acetate in air at 400 degrees C. The presented synthetic route is simple, cost effective and allows to prepare the high-quality superparamagnetic particles in a large scale. The as-prepared particles were exploited for the development of magnetic nanocomposites with the possible applicability in medicine and biochemistry.