What is fecal calprotectin?

Fecal calprotectin is a biochemical measurement of the protein calprotectin in the stool. Calprotectin is a calcium- and zinc-binding protein of the S-100 protein family which is mainly found within neutrophils and throughout the human body. The presence of calprotectin in feces is a consequence of neutrophil migration into the gastrointestinal tissue due to an inflammatory process. Fecal calprotectin concentrations demonstrate good correlation with intestinal inflammation and fecal calprotectin is used as a biomarker in gastrointestinal disorders.

Elevated fecal calprotectin indicates the migration of neutrophils to the intestinal mucosa, which occurs during intestinal inflammation, including inflammation caused by inflammatory bowel disease. Under a specific clinical scenario, the test may eliminate the need for invasive colonoscopy or radio-labelled white cell scanning.

Fecal calprotectin is a very sensitive marker for inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract, and useful for the differentiation of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Fecal calprotectin is used for the diagnosis, monitoring disease activity, treatment guidance and prediction of disease relapse and post-operative recurrence in IBD. There may also potentially be a role for fecal calprotectin in the management of infectious gastroenteritis, acute appendicitis, peptic ulcer disease, cystic fibrosis, coeliac disease, transplant rejection and graft versus host disease. Further studies are needed to confirm its utility in these conditions.

Analysis of fecal calprotectin consists of an extraction step followed by quantification by immunoassay. Over the past few decades, several assays and extraction devices including point-of-care methods have been introduced by manufacturers.

Source: NIH

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