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World J Gastrointest Pathophysiol. Nov 15, 2015; 6(4): 203-209
Published online Nov 15, 2015. doi: 10.4291/wjgp.v6.i4.203
Faecal calprotectin: Management in inflammatory bowel disease
José Manuel Benítez, Valle García-Sánchez
José Manuel Benítez, Valle García-Sánchez, Department of Gastroenterology, University Hospital Reina Sofia (Córdoba), 14004 Córdoba, Spain
Author contributions: Benítez JM and García-Sánchez V contributed equally to this work.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no have conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: José Manuel Benítez, MD, Department of Gastroenterology, University Hospital Reina Sofia (Córdoba), Avda.Menéndez Pidal s/n, 14004 Córdoba, Spain. jmbeni83@hotmail.com
Telephone: +34-95-7010450 Fax: +34-95-7012818
Received: June 30, 2015
Peer-review started: July 5, 2015
First decision: July 31, 2015
Revised: September 11, 2015
Accepted: October 23, 2015
Article in press: October 27, 2015
Published online: November 15, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: The surveillance of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) course is needed to select the patients with worse prognosis and to adapt an early therapeutic strategy. Faecal calprotectin constitutes a surrogate marker of intestinal inflammation and a robust alternative to invasive procedures as endoscopy. This biomarker has been demonstrated reliable and accuracy in different aspects of IBD such as diagnosis of IBD, activity assessment, response to treatment and relapse prediction. Although a cut-off level of calprotectin has not been fully established, the combination with other biomarkers allows an appropriate management of the patient.