Digestive diseases and sciences
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Inflammatory bowel disease frequently begins during childhood or adolescence. Current tests and procedures for diagnosing and monitoring inflammatory bowel disease are invasive, uncomfortable and costly. Fecal calprotectin is an inflammatory marker tested in several studies including pediatric patients with inflammatory bowel disease. ⋯ The fecal calprotectin test could be used for supporting diagnosis or confirming relapse of inflammatory bowel disease in pediatric patients. A positive result could confirm the suspicion of either inflammatory bowel disease diagnosis or inflammatory bowel disease relapse, due to the high sensitivity of the test, but a negative result should not exclude these conditions, due to its moderate specificity.