Objective: Faecal (f-) calprotectin is a widely used surrogate marker of intestinal inflammation. F-calprotectin analysis is labour demanding partly due to a time consuming extraction step. The aim of this project was to validate a new extraction method for f-calprotectin.
Material and methods: A prospective multicentre study included 135 patients with an established diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease. The patients submitted a faeces sample, which was extracted with both the conventional method at the participating laboratory and the new extraction device. The extracts were analyzed by an automated ELISA instrument.
Results: Method comparison of the traditional method and the new device showed a slope of 1.01 (0.93-1.07) with intercept of - 2.2 (- 4.9-0.6). The Spearman rank correlation coefficient was 0.96.
Conclusions: The new extraction device is a reliable and time saving alternative to the conventional extraction method.
Keywords: Biological markers; Crohn disease; colitis; enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; faeces; inflammatory bowel disease; leukocyte L1 antigen complex; ulcerative.