• Khawaja Bilal Waheed, Waseem Jan Shah, Bilal Altaf, Muhammad Amjad, Fawad Hameed, Sana Wasim, Muhammad Zia UlHassan, Zahra Mohammed Abuabdullah, Selvin Nesaraj Rajamonickam, and Zechriah Jebakumar Arulanatham.
• From the Department of Radiology, King Fahd Military Medical Complex, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
• Ann Saudi Med. 2020 Jan 1; 40 (1): 42-48.

BackgroundCrohn's disease (CD) is a serious cause of perianal disease and the incidence is increasing in Saudi Arabia. MR imaging may document specific features that may help to foresee Crohn's disease in patients making an initial presentation.ObjectivePresent MR imaging findings of perianal fistulas in patients making an initial presentation.DesignRetrospective, observational.SettingRadiology clinic in in Dhahran.Patients And MethodsAll previously undiagnosed and untreated patients who presented for the first time to the outpatient clinics from September 2015-2018 with perianal fistulas were retrospectively evaluated. Previously diagnosed CD patients, post-surgical or intervention cases were excluded. Fistulas were categorized as low or high anal, simple or complex, and were graded per St. James University Hospital Classification. Imaging was interpreted by two experienced readers based on the Van Assche score.Main Outcome MeasuresFistula features on MR imaging and diagnosis of CD.Sample Size171 patients.ResultsOf 171 patients, 139 (81.3%) were males with mean age of 37.2 (12.7) years; the 32 females had a mean age of 35.8 (10.6) years. Twenty-one patients (12.3%) had CD. Fourteen (40.4%) patients with complex fistulas had CD in comparison to only 5 (4.8%) simple fistula patients ( P=.0005). More than half of patients with complex and high anal fistulas had CD ( P=.0005). Females were more affected than males ( P=.0005).ConclusionComplex or high anal fistula on MR imaging may be the initial presentation of CD and warrant further work up to establish the diagnosis.LimitationsRetrospective, small sample, single center, and short duration study.Conflict Of InterestNone.

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