Calgranulin (S100A12) in diagnosing inflammatory bowel diseases in children

Determination of fecal calgranulin is a potential alternative to ileocolonoscopy in diagnosing and monitoring inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). The purpose was to study the diagnostic value of fecal calgranulin in Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis in children. Material and methods. The study included 118 patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and 30 conditionally healthy children. The average age was 14 years (Q1–Q3 — 11–16). In all children, the level of fecal calgranulin and calprotectin was determined by ELISA (Cloud-clone Corp., USA, unit of measurement — pg/ml), depending on the indicators of clinical, laboratory, endoscopic and histological activity of the disease. Results. Calgranulin levels were statistically significantly higher in ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease than in children from the control group. When comparing the calgranulin concentration depending on the clinical activity of Crohn’s disease, it was found that the biomarker level was higher in the active stage (Me — 275.40; Q1–Q3 — 217.91–413.87 pg/ml) than in the inactive stage (Me — 67.36; 54.68–89.08 pg/ml), p ˂ 0.05. Also, the calgranulin level was higher in the endoscopically active form of Crohn’s disease (Me — 364.11; Q1–Q3 — 215.77–510.1 pg/ml) than in endoscopic remission (Me — 49.16; Q1–Q3 — 44.89–54.14 pg/ml), p ˂ 0.05. Correlation analysis of calgranulin concentration with laboratory parameters did not reveal statistically significant relationships.