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. 2020 Nov 25;10(1):20565.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-77625-7.

Fecal calprotectin in healthy children aged 4-16 years

María Roca  1 , Ana Rodriguez Varela  2 , Eva Carvajal  3 , Ester Donat  4   5 , Francisco Cano  2 , Ana Armisen  2 , Maria Jose Vaya  2 , Helena Ekoff  6 , David Hervas  7 , Niclas Rydell  6 , Carmen Ribes-Koninckx  4   5
Affiliations

Fecal calprotectin in healthy children aged 4-16 years

María Roca et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Reference values of fecal calprotectin (fCP) have not been convincingly established in children. We aimed to investigate fCP concentrations in a larger population of healthy children aged 4-16 years to analyze more in depth the behavior of fCP in this age range and to determine if cut-off levels could be conclusively recommended. A prospective study was conducted to investigate fCP concentrations of healthy children aged 4-16 years. In 212 healthy children, the median and 95th percentile for fCP were 18.8 mg/kg and 104.5 mg/kg, respectively. We found a statistically significant association between the 95th percentile of fCP concentrations and age (p < 0.001). We propose a nomogram to facilitate the interpretation of fCP results in children aged 4-16 years. Further studies are required to validate the proposed values in clinical practice.

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Conflict of interest statement

Helena Ekoff and Niclas Rydell are employed at Thermo Fisher Scientific, but did not contribute either to the design neither to the interpretation of data. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Scatter plot depicting the relationship between age in years and fCP concentrations. Regression lines have been added for the 95th percentile (solid line) and for the 50th percentile (dashed line). (fCP fecal calprotectin).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Nomogram of healthy children (4–16 years of age) for the 95th and 50th percentile of fCP levels. (fCP fecal calprotectin). The nomogram comprises three rows: the first shows the age in years of healthy children from 4 to 16, the second row shows the 95th percentile of the fCP concentrations and the third row, the median of the fCP concentrations.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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