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Serum calprotectin shows promise as blood-based biomarker for IBD
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Serum calprotectin may be a useful diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for inflammatory bowel disease, according to the results of a prospective case control study.
“There is an unmet need for accurate diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in IBD as currently available blood biomarkers lack sensitivity and/or specificity,” Jack Satsangi, DPhil, FRCP, from the gastrointestinal unit in the Center for Molecular Medicine, Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine at Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, U.K., and colleagues wrote. “Our study is the first to investigate the role of [serum calprotectin (SC)] in patients with a new diagnosis of IBD.”
Jack Satsangi
Satsangi and colleagues analyzed blood samples from 96 patients with IBD and 75 individuals without IBD, used multivariable logistic regression analysis to develop a multi-biomarker model, and evaluated the relationship between each biomarker and IBD outcomes using a Cox proportional hazards model.
They found that SC correlated significantly with other current IBD biomarkers, including fecal calprotectin (FC). In addition, SC was the strongest independent predictor of IBD diagnosis (OR = 9.37; 95% CI, 2.82-34.68) compared with other markers, including C-reactive protein (CRP; OR = 8.52; 95% CI, 2.75-38.63) and albumin (OR = 6.12; 95% CI, 1.82-22.16).
In patients with paired SC and FC, FC was superior to SC for differentiating IBD from controls based on receiver operating characteristic analyses (P = .01).
After a median follow-up of 342 days, SC was predictive of treatment escalation and/or surgery in IBD patients (HR = 2.7; 95% CI, 1.1-4.9), especially in Crohn’s disease (HR = 4.2; 95% CI, 1.2-15.3).
Finally, the multi-biomarker model including SC and either CRP or albumin predicted IBD with 67% sensitivity, 97% specificity and a positive likelihood ratio of 24.14. Moreover, the model predicted treatment escalation at 1 year in 65% of IBD cases and 80% of Crohn’s disease cases when at least two blood marker criteria were met.
“SC shows promise as a blood-based biomarker in diagnosing and predicting disease course in IBD,” the investigators concluded. “A diagnostic and prognostic model that combines SC and other blood-based biomarkers accurately predicts the inflammatory burden in IBD and has the potential to predict disease and its outcomes.” – by Adam Leitenberger
Disclosures: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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