Comparative evaluation of Fecal Calprotectin, Lactoferrin and Occult Blood test in predicting microbiological diagnosis for acute bacterial diarrhea: Prospective Multicenter study

Abstract

Objective: About 2.2 million deaths occur every year worldwide due to diarrhea. There is lack of accurate diagnostic screening test to triage patients with acute bacterial diarrhea from those having mild and self limiting disease. This poses a formidable challenge to the clinicians in managing these patients appropriately initially at presentation as most of the patients with mild and nonbacterial diarrhea end up being treated with antibiotics. Lactoferrin and Guaiac based fecal occult blood test (FOBT) have been used to predict infective etiology of acute diarrhea but did not prove to be very accurate. In the present prospective, multicenter case-control study, fecal calprotectin has been evaluated for first time as a novel marker in diagnosing acute bacterial diarrhea.