Calprotectin as a diagnostic tool for inflammatory bowel diseases

Abstract

Abstract. Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are chronic intestinal disorders caused by a number of factors, including external influences, intestinal microbiota and genetics. The two major clinically defined types of IBD are Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, each of which is characterized by relapses in the clinical course, thus patients must be under constant observation via regular endoscopies. As endoscopy, which has been used for direct evaluation and diagnosis of IBD, requires uncomfortable and expensive bowel preparation, a non-invasive test was required to reduce the number of patients undergoing unnecessary endoscopy. Calprotectin is a protein occurring in the cytosol of inflammatory cells and is released by the activation of leukocytes. As it is elevated and stable in the faeces of patients with IBD and can be reliably detected in faecal samples of <5 g, it may serve as an inexpensive, non-invasive diagnostic method for IBD. This is explored in the following review.

Outcomes of vedolizumab therapy in patients with immune checkpoint inhibitor–induced colitis: a multi-center study

“…In addition to the above mentioned parameters, fecal levels of calprotectin, a calcium-binding protein that is derived from white blood cells, have been shown to correlate with GI inflammation, with favorable sensitivity and specificity [ 37 – 39 ]. Adding fecal calprotectin to the routine tests that are done when a GI-irAE is suspected would enable use of fecal calprotectin as a simple yet potentially valuable marker of response to treatment for colitis.…”

Evaluation of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α mRNA expression level and the rs1799964 polymorphism of the TNF-α gene in peripheral mononuclear cells of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases

“…IBD is complex multifactorial disease, the pathogenesis of which is not well understood (22). Allelic variants in cytokine genes have been shown to influence gene expression and subsequently the susceptibility to and severity of inflammation diseases (23).…”

Normal values for calprotectin in stool samples of infants from the population-based longitudinal born into life study

“…New promising markers for diagnostic purposes have been suggested, including measurement of the inflammatory marker calprotectin, which can be analyzed in fecal samples. While fecal calprotectin alone is not sufficient for the initial diagnosis of IBD, it is now considered a reliable marker for active IBD in adults [5] and has been suggested to replace biopsies to predict early relapse of IBD [6]. It has also recently been suggested for the triage of pediatric patients with symptoms suggestive of IBD [7] and can be used as a rule-out test for IBD [8].…”