• Gea A Holtman, Yvonne Lisman-van Leeuwen, Boudewijn J Kollen, Obbe F Norbruis, Johanna C Escher, Angelika Kindermann, Yolanda B de Rijke, Patrick F van Rheenen, and Marjolein Y Berger.
• Department of General Practice, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
• Ann Fam Med. 2016 Sep 1; 14 (5): 437-45.

PurposeIn specialist care, fecal calprotectin (FCal) is a commonly used noninvasive diagnostic test for ruling out inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in children with chronic gastrointestinal symptoms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of FCal for IBD in symptomatic children in primary care.MethodsWe studied 2 prospective cohorts of children with chronic diarrhea, recurrent abdominal pain, or both: children initially seen in primary care (primary care cohort) and children referred to specialist care (referred cohort). FCal (index test) was measured at baseline and compared with 1 of the 2 reference standards for IBD: endoscopic assessment or 1-year follow-up. Physicians were blinded to FCal results, and values greater than 50 μg/g feces were considered positive. We determined specificity in the primary care cohort and sensitivity in the referred cohort.ResultsNone of the 114 children in the primary care cohort ultimately received a diagnosis of IBD. The specificity of FCal in the primary care cohort was 0.87 (95% CI, 0.80-0.92). Among the 90 children in the referred cohort, 17 (19%) ultimately received a diagnosis of IBD. The sensitivity of FCal in the referred cohort was 0.99 (95% CI, 0.81-1.00).ConclusionsThe findings of this study suggest that a positive FCal result in children with chronic gastrointestinal symptoms seen in primary care is not likely to be indicative of IBD. A negative FCal result is likely to be a true negative, which safely rules out IBD in children in whom a primary care physician considers referral to specialist care.© 2016 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.

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