Cure8 research brief
Distinguishing acute infectious gastroenteritis from new‑onset IBD can be clinically challenging. Faecal biomarkers that help tell these apart could speed correct diagnosis and treatment and avoid unnecessary investigations or delays.
Clinicians evaluating patients with acute diarrhoea or suspected new‑onset IBD; researchers studying noninvasive biomarkers; adult patients with suspected IBD.
This study examined several faecal biomarkers (calprotectin, myeloperoxidase, human neutrophil lipocalin/HNL, eosinophil cationic protein, and eosinophil-derived neurotoxin) in three groups: acute infectious gastroenteritis, treatment‑naïve new‑onset IBD, and healthy controls.
HNL showed the best ability among the tested markers to distinguish acute gastroenteritis from new‑onset IBD in this exploratory cohort.
The authors report that all biomarkers were higher in acute gastroenteritis versus healthy controls, and that HNL, EDN, and MPO levels were higher in gastroenteritis than in newly diagnosed IBD; HNL had the highest discriminative performance (AUC ~0.74).
The study is small and exploratory, and the paper emphasizes the need for validation in larger, well‑characterised cohorts before clinical adoption.
If you or your clinician are considering using faecal biomarkers to help distinguish infectious gastroenteritis from new‑onset IBD, this paper suggests HNL may add information beyond calprotectin, but it is not definitive and further research is needed.
This is an exploratory, small study (28 GE, 40 new‑onset IBD, 40 controls) and reports diagnostic performance from that cohort. The authors recommend larger validation studies; the findings should not be taken as ready for routine clinical use.
Review the original publication for the complete reporting, methods, and context.
This Cure8 brief is based on source text from the linked article. Cure8 is informational only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
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