Endoscopy for inflammatory bowel disese.

Endoscopy is needed to make a diagnosis for ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). Endoscopy is also useful to make a treatment decision by assessing the severity and extension of inflammations. The endoscopic severity is associated with the long-term prognosis of UC and CD, thus, mucosal healing has raised as treatment goal. The scoring systems for endoscopic severity have been developed, such as Mayo endoscopic score and ulcerative colitis endoscopic index of severity for ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease index of severity (CDEIS) and simple endoscopic score for Crohn's disease (SESCD). These scoring systems is useful to assess objectively the therapeutic efficacies although CDEIS and CDEIS is not usually used in the clinical setting due to its complexities.