Fecal Calprotectin More Accurately Reflects Endoscopic Activity of Ulcerative Colitis than the Lichtiger Index, C-reactive Protein, Platelets, Hemoglobin, and Blood Leukocytes

Abstract

FC correlated better with endoscopic disease activity than clinical activity, CRP, platelets, hemoglobin, and blood leukocytes. The strong correlation with endoscopic disease activity suggests that FC represents a useful biomarker for noninvasive monitoring of disease activity in UC patients.

Evaluation of the Potential Antioxidant Role of High-Density Lipoprotein-Cholesterol (HDL-C) in Patients with Ulcerative Colitis

“…According to the Lichtiger index, patients with ulcerative colitis were divided into 2 groups (19)(20)(21). Patients with scores below 4 were considered as the remission group (22), while patients with scores above 4 were considered as the active-phase group.…”

“…This index is a rating system, used to assess the clinical activity of ulcerative colitis. It contains 7 variables, including diarrhea (number of daily bowel movements), nocturnal diarrhea, stool with visible blood (percentage of bowel movement), fecal incontinence, cramp or abdominal pain, abdominal tenderness, and need for antidiarrheal drugs (19,20). Clinical remission in patients with ulcerative colitis is defined as a Lichtiger score below 4 (22).…”

Correlation between Ulcerative Colitis Endoscopic Index of Severity, Lichtiger Index and Fecal Calprotectin in Ulcerative Colitis Patients

“…Up to now most studies described a weak correlation of FC levels and clinical indices [20]. In contrary, it has been found that FC correlates well with endoscopic and histological activity in IBD [18]. It is interesting that FC is more accurately correlated to histopathological findings than macroscopic findings on colonoscopy [21].…”

“…Clinical remission was determined as a Lichtiger Index of 3 points or less [12,17]. Similar to a study of Schoepfer et al [18] we defined the different degrees of clinical activity of UC as follows: remission: 0-3 points; mild activity: 4-8 …”

How Useful Are Blood and Stool Biomarkers for Detecting Subclinical Mucosal Inflammation in Ulcerative Colitis?

“…The overall accuracy of detection of endoscopically active disease (Rachmilewitz Endoscopic Activity Score 4) was reported to be 89 % for calprotectin, 73 % for the Clinical Activity Index, and 62 % for elevated CRP [7]. Fecal calprotectin, also, had a better correlation with the modified Baron Score (r = 0.821) than with the Lichtiger Index (r = 0.682) and CRP (r = 0.556) [8]. These results suggest that among UC patients, fecal biomarkers better reflect endoscopic inflammation than do blood biomarkers.…”