Point of care testing of fecal calprotectin as a substitute for routine laboratory analysis

Abstract

ObjectivesFecal calprotectin (FC) is widely used to monitor the activity of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and to tailor medical treatment to disease activity. Laboratory testing of fecal samples may have a turnaround time of 1–2 weeks, whereas FC home testing allows results within hours and thus enables a rapid response to clinical deterioration.Design and methodsFifty-five stool samples were analyzed by the IBDoc® Calprotectin Home Testing kit and the BÜHLMANN fCAL® turbo assay on a Roche Cobas 6000 c501. The correlation between the assays was assessed using Spearman's Rho correlation coefficient and the intermediate imprecision of both assays was calculated.ResultsWe found a strong correlation coefficient of 0.887 between FC measured on IBDoc® and the laboratory assay BÜHLMANN fCAL® turbo. The coefficients of variation (CVs) at three different FC levels were in the range 2.3–5.5% (BÜHLMANN fCAL® turbo) and in the range of 4.8–26.6% (IBDoc®).ConclusionsThis study suggests that IBDoc® is a suitable alternative for the assessment of disease activity in IBD patients.

Organisational changes and challenges for inflammatory bowel disease services in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…One option for such services is to initiate and upscale the use of point-of-care faecal calprotectin testing. 25 A major concern highlighted by this survey is the significant reduction in both clinicians and specialist nurses available to care for IBD patients. More than 50% of the respondents felt that the services would remain understaffed and unable to meet the needs of IBD patients.…”

Development and Validation of a Test to Monitor Endoscopic Activity in Patients With Crohn’s Disease Based on Serum Levels of Proteins

“…41 Third, one of the major limitations of FC is the variability across platforms, collection techniques, and timing of sample collection, which have downstream implications on the diagnostic performance of FC. 22,26,[42][43][44][45][46][47] The EHI was built to ensure reproducibility and consistency in performance, which was observed throughout the validation process. Although no power analysis was performed for the comparison of the EHI and FC, we note that the sample size for this comparison was somewhat limited, with 247 samples in validation cohort 1 and 81 samples in validation cohort 2.…”

Point-of-care faecal calprotectin testing in patients with paediatric inflammatory bowel disease during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…The IBDoc (Laboratories AG, Baselstrasse 55, CH-4124 Schönenbuch, Switzerland) home kit was selected owing to its wide usage in various countries, including some National Health Service (NHS) trusts, [5][6][7][8] and as a kit which, when tested, was found to agree with ELISA tests at calprotectin levels <500 µg/g. 9 10…”