GIQuant is a software solution that turns subjective cine MRI sequences into a quantitative motility score in the small bowel.
By measuring how the bowel moves, GIQuant provides a validated objective score quantifying Crohn’s disease activity that can be tracked over time to support treatment decisions and clinical trials. GIQuant is CE marked (Class IIa) and FDA Cleared (Class II) for use in adults and children.
Conventional MRI assessment of Crohn’s disease is largely subjective and relies on visible structural changes such as wall thickening, ulceration or strictures. These changes often appear late in the disease process, meaning clinicians may miss early treatment response or disease progression.
While MRI is a powerful test for showing where the disease is (small bowel vs colon) and what the disease is doing (penetrating or stricturing), it cannot, without the help of measurement tooling, show how the disease is responding, for example to therapy or intervention.
GIQuant provides clinicians with a rapid, objective score for small bowel motility, reducing variability from subjective image interpretation. It helps support standardisation of reads across hospitals and clinical trials.
This MRI of the bowel (MRE) shows a suspicious region of bowel (bottom left) at the terminal ileum of a patient with Crohn's Disease - characterised by a thickening of the bowel wall.
In the top right is also a thickened bowel loop, but is this also Crohn's?
Incorporate objective motility scores into MR enterography reporting, improving confidence in detecting disease activity and strictures.
To add a layer of additional quality and robustness to my otherwise subjective report. GIQuant allows me to provide a quantified variable that relates to disease activity in an easy and reproducible manner.
They like it and it adds to their confidence in the MRI report. In particular, when morphological changes are minimal, the GIQuant can give an additional hint on whether things are headed in the correct direction or not.
Assessment of treatment response.
The more you use it the more essential it will become to your interpretation for disease response assessment.
I use GIQuant every day to help me monitor my patients with Crohn’s disease. It’s a simple score that helps me decide there and then if the treatment I am giving is effective. It takes the subjectivity out of radiology reporting.
A typical case would be one with small bowel Crohn’s having a biologic. The patient's symptoms have not changed much and the narrative report of the 2 MRIs (before and after treatment) look very similar. Having a numeric outcome that goes one way or the other or even stays the same helps your confidence in decision-making.
There has been a lot of research in GIQuant and its certainly ready for real-world use. My use and interpretation of it in the research or real world setting is the same.
That the GIQuant score heavily relies on the radiologist measuring the same piece of bowel. So you have ask specific questions to the radiologist to get the answers you need. Discussion and MDT working is key.
We have largely stopped using Gadolinium for our follow-up MR Enterography studies in patients with IBD - both children and adults, unless there is complex penetrating disease. Instead, we have substituted motility/CINE sequences. This reduces the cumulative Gadolinium burden, and also reduces the need for cannulation. GIQuant allows us to quantify the changes in motility over time in these patients.
They enjoy the motility sequences and are beginning to understand the motility quantification as we use it more.
We have had patients with discomfort and a feeling of gut hold-up in the right iliac fossa after imaging features of inflammation have otherwise settled. It has been interesting to see how motility can remain delayed in the bowel even after treatment and can help patients to understand their ongoing symptoms.
It takes a while to build the experience in using it - both in radiology and gastroenterology.
We’ve found GIQuant to be an additional objective measure of disease activity which can be harnessed from MR Enterography and now apply this technology to all studies at UCLH, mainly in Crohn’s disease.
T2-weighted imaging, including fat saturated sequences are central to our assessment of disease activity and phenotype. Motility sequences also play a very useful role, and GIQuant can now be easily applied to standard MRE protocols to quantify motility.
It can make it easier to communicate treatment response in MDT, and the GIQuant score provides a digestible format for patients to understand their disease control.
Treatment response assessment in Crohn’s disease. This adds a layer of objectivity to the report in addition to including one of the four ECCO-ESGAR consensus descriptive response categories.
We’re taking an important step with UCLH being first site to start the Context Trial (NIHR i4i) aiming to provide real world evidence for management decision impact of GIQuant. It will also assess the impact of intravenous contrast on MRE interpretation, potentially adding to the evidence base supporting a move away from its routine use.
GIQuant will be incorporated into our METEOR study, recently opened in the UK. It aims to establish MRE predictors of early disease relapse in Crohn’s disease after stopping biologic drugs for clinical remission.
We are also investigating GIQuant in Parkinson’s disease and ulcerative colitis. We see future potential in a much wider group of patients with small bowel and/or gastric dysmotility, and have a large GI physiology unit where this could be explored.
The Radiology and MDT learning curve can be steep. We think that this technology needs regular use to be clinically impactful, both in the application to MRE studies with suitable, reproducible region of interest placement, and in MDT interpretation to influence management decisions.
Use GIQuant results alongside endoscopy, biomarkers, and clinical data to guide treatment decisions and monitor response in both children and adults.
GIQuant provides an objective score of small bowel motility that can be incorporated into clinical research and drug development. This supports consistent assessment of Crohn’s disease activity and treatment response across sites.
Short breath-hold cine (dynamic) MRI sequences of the small bowel are obtained as part of routine MRE.
No special protocols are required beyond standard cine acquisitions.
Provides a GIQuant reference image and a heatmap
A region of interest (ROI) is drawn around the bowel segment onto the reference image of interest.
GIQuant applies a validated image registration algorithm to measure bowel movement across frames.
Each pixel’s displacement is tracked to calculate a motility map.
The software outputs a quantitative GIQuant score for the defined segment.
Lower scores indicate reduced movement (often associated with active Crohn’s disease), while higher scores reflect normal peristalsis.
The score can be trended over time to monitor treatment response or disease progression.
Results can be included in radiology reports or used in research and clinical trial datasets.
GIQuant produces a numerical motility score that reflects how much a segment of bowel is moving oncine MRI.
Normal scores (200 to 400) = greater motility, typically consistent with healthy bowel peristalsis
Lower scores (< 200) = reduced motility, often associated with active inflammation, stricturing, or impaired function
Higher scores ( >400) = vigorous peristaltic activity.
GIQuant has appeared in more than fifty research articles and now hundreds of scientific abstracts. A bibliography of research can be found here:
Key findings from published research:
A static stricture and pre-stricture dilation with reduced motility
A static stricture but some activity pre-dilation
A lively stricture with some contractions in the stricture and vigorous peristalsis upstream
Contact our team to arrange a demo or learn how GIQuant can be implemented at your site or in your study.
GIQuant is designed to fit seamlessly into existing radiology workflows.
Yes, as all patient data is processed on premises at the hospital. There is no cloud and no external data transfer.
No, GIQuant and its results are designed to work with your existing PACS infrastructure. We are able to connect with your system via existing trusted pathways, IEP for the UK and Powershare for North America, or dedicated gateways depending on your hospital IT's preference.
Yes, it is possible to process historic patient MRE scan data and extract GIQuant scores.
Read more at Menys A. et al. (2018). Quantified Terminal Ileal Motility during MR Enterography as a Biomarker of Crohn Disease Activity: Prospective Multi-Institution Study. Radiology. 289(2):428 - 435. doi:10.1148/radiol.2018180100
GIQuant has been designed to integrate seamlessly into existing routine workflows through the implementation of customisable configuration at installation.
Radiologist - GIQuant can be installed within your hospital PACS and the subject's data is auto-routed without you having to do anything. When GIQuant has finished, the derived data will be returned to that subject's session. Results may be annotated, and values quoted in a typical reporting process.
Gastroenterologist - During a consultation with a patient you would take into account the radiology report and the GIQuant score in comparing how the patient is responding to treatment. In some cases, it may be useful to access the results directly and talk the patient through their situation using the GIQuant results (and MRE in general) to help illustrate findings.Â
GIQuant has been designed and developed by Motilent to globally recognised medical device manufacturing standards including IEC 62304:2006. Motilent is also a holder of an ISO 13485:2016 Certificate.
Yes, GIQuant is indicated for the investigation of bowel wall movement (motility) within the small intestine in patients of all ages suffering with or with the suspicion of Crohn’s disease.
Generally, MRI shows high specificity and sensitivity for small bowel disease and this is why we have focused on this area in line with the optimal use case of the MRE test.
GIQuant has comparable performance to the widely accepted clinical trial endpoint MaRIA as well as a strong association with endoscopic (CDEIS) and histopathological (eAIS) measures of disease activity.
More can be read at:
Menys A. et al. (2018). Quantified Terminal Ileal Motility during MR Enterography as a Biomarker of Crohn Disease Activity: Prospective Multi-Institution Study. Radiology. 289(2):428 - 435. doi:10.1148/radiol.2018180100
GIQuant is FDA Cleared (Class II) and CE Marked (Class Ila). It can be used for adults and children with routine MRE data.
Yes. GIQuant requires motility MRI to produce a score along with an optimal set of acquisition parameters (i.e. 20 second breath hold).
Intestinal motility is a relatively new parameter that looks at the physiology of the intestine (how it is moving) in a complementary way to the structure of the intestine (bowel wall thickening) as seen on T2.
It has the added benefit of not requiring IV contrast or a spasmolytic (e.g. Buscopan).
GIQuant produces a motility score quickly once cine MRI data are loaded and the region of interest (ROI) is defined. In published studies, ROI selection and score generation took under one minute.
No. GIQuant is installed locally within hospital infrastructure for clinical use. In research or data management settings, GIQuant analysis can also be supported via Motilent’s Entrolytics platform, which provides tools for image review, ROI definition, and data organisation.
GIQuant requires cine (motility) MRI sequences with the following parameters:
Yes. GIQuant is FDA Cleared (Class II) and CE Marked (Class IIa) for use in adults and children. Several published studies have successfully applied motility assessment in paediatric Crohn’s disease cohorts.
