The Capsule Endoscopy Crohn’s Disease Activity Index, clinical activity and fecal calprotectin level in patients with isolated small intestine lesions

Abstract

To identify a correlation between diagnostic markers of Crohn's disease and endoscopic data using the Capsule Endoscopy Crohn's Disease Activity Index for isolated small intestine lesions. We studied 127 patients over previous 19 years. All patients were divided into 2 groups: isolated Crohn's disease of small intestine (group 1) and lesion of small and large intestine or large intestine only (group 2). All patients underwent capsule enteroscopy (MiroCam system, South Korea). Clinical activity of Crohn's disease was determined using the Best's scale, endoscopic activity - using the the Capsule Endoscopy Crohn's Disease Activity Index. We also analyzed fecal calprotectin and other laboratory markers. We found moderate correlation between fecal calprotectin and clinical activity of Crohn's disease, as well as endoscopic activity, C-reactive protein and leukocytes in overall sample of patients. There was moderate correlation between endoscopic activity and clinical activity in overall sample of patients. We found no correlation between fecal calprotectin and endoscopic activity, endoscopic activity and clinical activity, endoscopic activity and C-reactive protein and leukocytes in patients with isolated small bowel disease. Isolated small intestine lesion is accompanied by significantly lower level of fecal calprotectin compared to lesion of small and large intestine. In isolated small intestine lesion, endoscopic data do not correlate with clinical symptoms and fecal calprotectin level. Thus, analysis of severity of disease using the Crohn's Disease Clinical Activity Scale alone and fecal calprotectin may not always be effective for isolated small bowel lesion.