Fecal lactoferrin as a new marker of disease activity in inflammatory bowel diseases

ABSTRACT

Background: Inflammatory bowel diseases [IBD] including ulcerative colitis [UC] and Crohn's disease [CD] are organic inflammatory diseases, caused by chronic mucosal inflammation of the gasrtointetinal tract. As the presenting manifestations of IBD and other diseases are similar, obtaining a clinical diagnosis can be difficult, and further invasive diagnostic procedures may be required in order to obtain a confirmed diagnosis. The aim of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic utility of measuring fecal concentrations of lactoferrin as a simple and noninvasive indicator of disease activity in patients IBD and to be correlated with endoscopic findings and disease activity index and acute inflammatory response including leucocytic count, high sensitive CRP, ESR