The level of faecal calprotectin as a noninvasive biomarker of mucosal healing in children with ulcerative colitis

Introduction
Recently, faecal calprotectin (FC) has been used as a marker of inflammatory processes in the gastrointestinal tract, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and has served to assess and monitor disease activity, mucosal healing (MH), and disease recurrence.

Aim
To assess the correlation between FC and endoscopic activity of inflammation.

Material and methods
This retrospective study included 81 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), with a median age of 15 years (range: 3–18 years), who were treated in the Children’s Memorial Health Institute (CMHI) between 2013 and 2015. Within the study group there were two sub-groups created: patients with Baron score = 0 (n = 34, 42%) and ≥ 1 (n = 47, 58%).

Results
Statistical analysis was performed using Statistica 10 software (StatSoft, USA), and the value of p ≤ 0.05 was established as a significance level. In patients with Baron score ≥ 1, significantly higher FC values and PUCAI scores were found in comparison to children with Baron score = 0. The level of FC had greater accuracy than the PUCAI score in differentiation between patients with Baron score = 0 and ≥ 1 (Z = –1.73, p = 0.082). There was a significant correlation between PUCAI score and FC (R = 0.55, p < 0.001).

Conclusions
Faecal calprotectin may be a good, noninvasive biomarker of mucosal healing in paediatric patients with UC.