A162 THE UTILITY OF FECAL CALPROTECTIN IN PREDICTING SEVERITY OF CLOSTRIDIUM DIFFICILE INFECTION: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Abstract

Abstract Background Clostridium difficile is an anaerobic, spore-forming, gram-positive bacillus, and a leading cause of infectious diarrhea in hospitalized patients. It is associated with high mortality and morbidity, and places an enormous burden on the healthcare system. Symptoms and severity of CDI vary widely, from illness that resolves with antibiotics, to toxic megacolon, colectomy, and death. The ability to risk-stratify patients to predict severe versus non-severe outcomes at baseline would be clinically useful. The role of fecal calprotectin in predicting severity of CDI has not been well established. Aims To perform a systematic review of the literature on the ability of fecal calprotectin to predict disease severity in patients with CDI. Methods PubMed, OVID (EMBASE/MedLine) and Cochrane Library databases were searched up until October 2, 2019. Publications of pediatric populations, Inflammatory Bowel diseases, and those only published as abstracts were excluded. Results 130 non-duplicate citations were screened; after title/abstract screening, and full-text review, 7 articles were included for analysis. Articles were from 2014 onwards, and varied from 29 to 232 patients/samples analyzed; 832 patients in total were analyzed. Three studies were conducted in the USA, two in Europe, one in Israel and in South Korea. Four studies were prospective, and the remaining three were retrospective cohort studies. There was significant heterogeneity between studies with respect to population size, age (when reported), fecal calprotectin assay and cutoff used, method of diagnosis of CDI, and criteria for defining disease severity. There was wide variation in median fecal calprotectin levels between studies. Four studies demonstrated a statistically significant difference of fecal calprotectin according to disease severity, and three did not, of which two of these demonstrated an overall predictive trend with fecal calprotectin. Conclusions It is unclear whether fecal calprotectin is predictive of severity of CDI in adult patients without IBD. In the existing literature, there seems to be a statistically significant association or trend towards association in most studies, but due to heterogeneity of methods, assays, cutoffs and populations, the data within these studies cannot be pooled in meta-analysis. Further high-powered, well-designed studies are required to clarify this important clinical question. Funding Agencies None