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. 2021 Apr-Jun;47(2):204-208.
doi: 10.12865/CHSJ.47.02.09. Epub 2021 Jun 30.

Clostridoides difficile Infection Severity Assessment by Fecal Calprotectin: A Pilot Study

Mirela Nicoleta Voicu  1 , Ana Maria Ahmet  2 , Adina Turcu-Stiolica  3 , Bogdan Silviu Ungureanu  4 , Alice Nicoleta Dragoescu  5 , Florica Popescu  6
Affiliations

Clostridoides difficile Infection Severity Assessment by Fecal Calprotectin: A Pilot Study

Mirela Nicoleta Voicu et al. Curr Health Sci J. 2021 Apr-Jun.

Abstract

Clostridoides difficile infection (CDI) is the leading cause of antibiotic related diarrhea therapy and may associate high morbidity and mortality. Providing a potential biomarker to assess disease severity may help physicians in choosing the right treatment.

Methods: This was a prospective, single-centre cohort study which included patients diagnosed with CDI which were assessed by fecal calprotectin (FC).

Results: Patients included had a mean of 69.29 years of age, 54.23% of male gender. Patients diagnosed with mild CDI had a mean ATLAS score of 3.39 (±1.24), statistically lower (p<0.001) than patients with severe CDI who had a mean ATLAS score of 7.33 (±0.77). Fecal calprotectin concentrations were significantly higher (p<0.001) in the severe CDI patients (615.14μg/g; IQR, 403.62-784.4μg/g) than in the mild CDI patients (195.42μg/g; IQR, 131.12-298.59μg/g). We suggest a cut-off of 290.09μg/g for the predictive marker of fecal calprotectin, which permitted to identify patients with severe and mild CDI, having 100% sensitivity and 76% specificity.

Conclusions: Our findings point out the potential that FC might have, as a biomarker for disease severity. However, future multicentre studies and in larger cohort need to validate the results.

Keywords: Clostridoides difficile infection; fecal calprotectin; predictive value.

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Conflict of interest statement

None to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Violin plots showing the distribution of values for ATLAS score and Fecal calprotectin by severity CDI patients
Figure 2
Figure 2
ROC curve analysis of fecal calprotectin concentrations by severity CDI
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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