Calprest

THE NEW GENERATION TEST FOR THE DETERMINATION OF CALPROTECTIN IN THE FECES

Calprest is the immunoenzymatic test from Eurospital that allows to verify, in an accurate and non-invasive way, the presence of an inflammatory state of the intestinal tract. Calprest permits the differential diagnosis between organic diseases (Inflammatory Bowel Disease – IBD) and functional diseases (Irritable Bowel Syndrome – IBS). If Calprest provides a negative result, it is almost completely safe to exclude an inflammation of the intestinal mucosa.

Until today, to evaluate the inflammatory state of the intestinal mucosa it was necessary to resort to invasive tests (colonoscopy and subsequent histological examination). Recently, the use of non-invasive markers has found more and more credit: among these, one of the most reliable and safe is the determination of fecal concentration of calprotectin, an antimicrobial protein present in neutrophils that, in the presence of inflammatory bowel processes, is released into the intestinal lumen and therefore can be detected in feces. The diagnostic principle of Calprest is based on the quantitative determination of calprotectin in the stool: in patients with Chronic Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD), the level of calprotectin is in fact generally very high. In subjects with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), the level of calprotectin is instead much lower than that found in patients with the active disease, sometimes higher than the reference value but, in any case, always higher than that found in healthy subjects. Calprest uses this marker to allow the identification of you patients with inflammation that need to undergo further analysis, being more accurate than common biochemical tests (VES, PCR).

he determination of fecal calprotectin is used for the differential diagnosis between IBD and IBS due to its high negative predictive value that allows the exclusion of a possible organic pathology.

Samples with a calprotectin concentration above 50 mg of calprotectin/kg should be considered positive for the test. In healthy adults, the average value of calprotectin is 25 mg of calprotectin/kg.
A positive result with Calprest is an indication of intestinal inflammation and allows to safely identify patients that need to undergo further diagnostic analysis.

The performance of Calprest, its ease of use and the non-invasiveness of the ELISA method allow to extend the usage of the test from early diagnosis to the screening of patients for the identification, for example, of inflammatory causes of chronic diarrhea. In addition, Calprest can be also used for the follow up of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), diverticulosis and as well for monitoring of drug therapies. Even though there is often an improvement in the clinical status of the patient and also a decrease of the inflammation index, the inflammatory state of the intestinal mucosa may remain high, this being the main reason for the relapses often occurring in these pathologies. The longer the time between the clinical remission and the eventual relapse of the disease, the better the prognosis of the course of the disease. Until recently, the histological remission of the disease – that is, the complete functional recovery of the mucosa – could only be verified by invasive methods. Recently it has been shown that in patients suffering from ulcerative colitis (UC), a negative calprotectin value is an indication of not only clinical but also histological remission. The availability of a non-invasive method such as Calprest has led to a notable progress not only in the diagnosis of bowel inflammation, but also in the monitoring and in the optimization of medical therapies. Monitoring the clinical course of the patient with Calprest helps preventing possible relapses and allows to eventually adapt the therapeutic strategy.