Avoid Endoscopy in Children With Suspected Inflammatory Bowel Disease Who Have Normal Calprotectin Levels.

Abstract

In children with suspected inflammatory bowel disease, adding calprotectin stool testing to the screening strategy has been recommended to distinguish organic from nonorganic disease. In this cohort study with historical controls, we could not confirm that screening with stool calprotectin improves the diagnostic yield (ratio inflammatory bowel disease-positive endoscopies and total number of endoscopies); however, in patients with normal fecal calprotectin levels (<50 μg/g) endoscopic and histological abnormalities were not seen. We propose to refrain from endoscopy when stool calprotectin levels are normal.