WEBINAR: Health economic value of calprotectin testing: A gastroenterologist's perspective

FREE to register and attend!

•    Patients presenting with persistent abdominal pain and diarrhea are common in clinical practice. Evaluation of these patients, assuming no alarm symptoms, can be difficult.  Inflammatory bowel disease is always a possibility and while few will actually have IBD, the symptoms of IBS and IBD can overlap.   Concern with a missed diagnosis of IBD leads many clinicians to request endoscopic evaluation.  

•    Most endoscopies are negative with over half of endoscopies on individuals with non-bleeding symptoms being diagnosed with non-organic disease, usually IBS.¹   Up to 70% of children and teenagers referred to a pediatric gastroenterology center for suspected IBD did not have the disease.²  Furthermore, although endoscopic procedures are relatively common, they are invasive, costly, require patient compliance with fasting and bowel preparation, involve sedation, are subjective.  

•    The strategy of testing for fecal calprotectin, a calcium and zinc binding protein complex found in neutrophil cytosolic protein,  utilizes non-invasive diagnostic testing to stratify patients in need of endoscopic confirmation, reducing costs and improving the overall patient healthcare experience

<sub>1. Yang Z, Clark N, and Park KT. Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of measuring fecal calprotectin in diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease in adults and children. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2014; 12(2): 253-262.
2. Van de Vijver E, Schreuder A, Cnossen W, Muller K, and van Rheenen P and the North Netherlands Pediatric IBD Consortium. Safely ruling out inflammatory bowel disease in children and teenagers without referral for endoscopy. Arch Dis Child 97:1014-1018.</sub>