May measuring of fecal calprotectin replace colonoscopy for follow up of patients with Crohn’s disease after surgery?
After intestinal resection patients with Crohn’s disease need close monitoring and tailored therapy adjustment to reduce the risk of relapses. Today, colonoscopy is still the gold standard for the detection of disease reactivation, an invasive procedure which is unpleasant for the patient and expensive for the health care systems.
Biomarkers in blood or stool samples that correlate with endoscopic findings could therefor improve the surveillance of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases.
A candidate marker for this purpose is measurement of calprotectin concentrations in stool samples from affected patients.