Background: Fecal calprotectin (FC) levels have been extensively reported to correlate with clinical and endoscopic activities in Crohn's disease (CD); however, the utility of FC levels in the postoperative setting remains to be determined. Using meta-analysis, we aimed to evaluate the utility of FC as a noninvasive marker of recurrence in patients with CD who had undergone previous surgical resection.
Methods: An electronic search using keywords related to CD and FC was performed in multiple electronic resources from 1966 to March 2014. The extracted data were pooled using a hierarchical summary receiver operating curve model.
Results: Ten articles met the inclusion criteria, and methodological quality was determined in detail for each study. The 10 studies presented FC levels in 613 postoperative CD patients. The pooled sensitivity and specificity values for assessing suspected endoscopic recurrence were 0.82 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.73-0.89, 8 studies, n = 391) and 0.61 (95% CI, 0.51-0.71), respectively. The overall positive and negative likelihood ratios were 2.11 (95% CI, 1.68-2.66) and 0.29 (95% CI, 0.197-0.44), respectively. The pooled sensitivity and specificity values for evaluating clinical relapse were 0.59 (95% CI, 0.47-0.71; 3 studies, n = 183) and 0.88 (95% CI, 0.80-0.93), respectively. The overall positive and negative likelihood ratios were 5.10 and 0.47, respectively.
Conclusions: As a simple and noninvasive marker, FC is useful in evaluating recurrence of postoperative patients with CD.