Zuzana Chovanová
Colonoscopy is an invasive, uncomfortable and painful method for investigation of inflammatory bowel disease activity (IBD) and can also predict the risk of clinical relapse in patients. Highly developed countries use non-invasive determination of calprotectin as a marker of inflammatory bowel disease activity and response to treatment. Calprotectin is a calcium binding protein predominantly in neutrophils with antimicrobial and antiprolipherative activities. Calprotectin concentration is higher in feces than in plasma and significantly increased levels of fecal calprotectin were found in patients with bowel inflammation (IBD) and they are correlating well with endoscopic and histological assessments of disease activity as well as with CDAI. It has been proved that fecal calprotectin represents a surrogate marker of neutrophil influx into the bowel lumen, hence it can be regarded as simple, non-invasive and high sensitive marker of intestinal inflammation.
Keywords: Calprotectin, Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn`s disease, Ulcerative colitis