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Published on: April 26, 2019
Calprotectin: Clinical Applications in Pediatrics
Oscar R Herrera1, Michael L Christensen2, Richard A Helms2
1Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Pharmacy, Memphis, Tennessee ; State of Tennessee Center of Excellence in Pediatric Pharmacokinetics and Therapeutics, Memphis, Tennessee.
Insights
Calprotectin is a valuable non-invasive biomarker for pediatric gastrointestinal inflammation. This review explores its use in various body fluids for monitoring inflammatory conditions in children.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Gastroenterology
- Biomarker Research
- Clinical Diagnostics
Background:
- Calprotectin has emerged as a significant non-invasive biomarker for gastrointestinal (GI) inflammation over the last two decades.
- This review focuses on the application of calprotectin in pediatric populations, examining its utility across various disease states.
Approach:
- A comprehensive survey of published English-language studies on calprotectin in neonates, infants, children, and adolescents up to February 2014 was conducted.
- The review discusses calprotectin's fundamental properties, including its characteristics, identification, presence in bodily fluids, and developmental aspects.
- Evaluation of calprotectin's role in both GI and non-GI inflammatory conditions, with comparisons to existing serum markers, is presented.
Key Points:
- Calprotectin concentrations in diverse body fluids can effectively monitor inflammation in pediatric patients.
- The potential of calprotectin as a prospective marker for intestinal inflammation and readiness for feeding is explored.
- Comparative analysis highlights calprotectin's performance against other available serum markers for inflammatory diseases.
Conclusions:
- Calprotectin shows considerable promise as a monitoring tool in pediatric inflammatory conditions.
- Further research is needed to establish calprotectin as a routine clinical tool for monitoring intestinal inflammation and guiding therapeutic interventions.
- Prospective studies are essential to solidify calprotectin's role in clinical decision-making for pediatric GI health.
Abstract:
As seen over the past 20 years, calprotectin has evolved as a novel, non-invasive biomarker of gastrointestinal (GI) inflammation. We present this review of calprotectin in pediatrics. This article will focus on studies using calprotectin concentrations from different body fluids to monitor inflammation in different disease states and conditions. The ultimate goal of our group is to lay down a foundation as we consider using calprotectin prospectively as a marker of intestinal inflammation that could lead to further testing and possibly a marker of preparedness for feeding. We surveyed all published studies in English of calprotectin in neonates, infants, children, and adolescents through February 2014. We will discuss calprotectin's basic properties and analysis such as characteristics, identification, presence in body fluids, and maturational development. In addition, calprotectin's use in inflammatory diseases exploring both GI and non-GI conditions will be evaluated and compared with other serum markers presently available. Finally, a summary of our findings and discussion of future work that could be undertaken in order to render calprotectin as a more useful monitoring tool to the medical research community will complete the review.
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