METRIC (MR Enterography or ulTRasound In Crohn's disease)

Diagnostic accuracy for the extent and activity of newly diagnosed and relapsed Crohn's disease: a multicentre prospective comparison of magnetic resonance enterography and small bowel ultrasound compared to a reference standard in those aged 16 and over

The METRIC study was a multicentre, non-randomised, single-arm, prospective cohort study comparing the diagnostic accuracy of MR enterography (MRE) and enteric ultrasound (US) for the presence, extent and activity of small bowel Crohn's disease in newly diagnosed patients, or patients with established disease and suspected relapse. 

Patients underwent MRE and US in addition to standard investigations performed as part of their usual care, and their clinical course was followed for a period of 6 months. A multi-disciplinary consensus panel derived the reference standard for the presence, location and biological activity of small bowel and colonic CD using all available clinical, endoscopic, imaging, biochemical and histological data over the 6 months follow up period.

The trial achieved National Health Service research ethics committee approval in September 2013 (13/SC/0394) and recruitment finished in September 2017. 

Publications

• Stuart A Taylor, Susan Mallett, Gauraang Bhatnagar, Rachel Baldwin-Cleland, Stuart Bloom, Arun Gupta, Peter J Hamlin, Ailsa L Hart, Antony Higginson, Ilan Jacobs, Sara McCartney, Anne Miles, Charles D Murray, Andrew A Plumb, Richard C Pollok, Shonit Punwani, Laura Quinn, Manuel Rodriguez-Justo, Zainib Shabir, Andrew Slater, Damian Tolan, Simon Travis, Alastair Windsor, Peter Wylie, Ian Zealley, Steve Halligan, on behalf of the METRIC study investigators* | Diagnostic accuracy of magnetic resonance enterography and small bowel ultrasound for the extent and activity of
  newly diagnosed and relapsed Crohn’s disease (METRIC): a multicentre trial Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol 2018; 3: 548–58
• Taylor S, Mallet S, Bhatnagar G, Cloom S, Gupta A, Halligan S, Hamlin J, Hart A, Higginson A, Jacobs I, McCartney S, Morris S, Muirhead N, Murray C, Punwani S, Rodriguez-Justo M, Slater A, Travis S, Tolan D, Windsor A, Wyliw P, Zealey I. METRIC (MrEnterography or uLTRasound in Crohn's disease): a study protocol for a multicentre, non-randomised, single arm, prospective comparison study of magnetic resonance enterography and small bowel ultrasound compared to a reference standard in those aged 16 and over. BMC Gastroenterology 2014; 14:142.
• Trial Protocol.

ISRCTN03982913