Diagnostic value of C-reactive protein for predicting activity level of Crohn's disease.

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Date publication

juillet 2006

Auteurs

Membres identifiés du Cancéropôle Est :
Pr MEYER Nicolas


Tous les auteurs :
Chamouard P, Richert Z, Meyer N, Rahmi G, Baumann R

Résumé

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Measuring Crohn's disease (CD) activity is useful in clinical trials as well as in clinical practice, but each available instrument to measure such activity has some limitations. C-reactive protein (CRP) is a sensitive marker for inflammation and tissue injury. The aims of the study were: to assess the diagnostic value of low level of CRP for predicting a low CD activity, and to calculate optimal CRP cutoff value for selecting patients with moderate or high CD activity. METHODS: One hundred fifty consecutive patients with active or nonactive CD were included in the study without any pre-selection criteria. CRP was measured, and CD activity was calculated by means of the van Hees index (VHI). RESULTS: The median VHI score was 154.4 (interquartile range, 126.0-193.4), and the median CRP was 19.1 mg/L (interquartile range, 6.1-50.1 mg/L; upper limit of normal [N], 4 mg/L). Forty-nine percent of our patients had CRP >20 mg/L. CRP was significantly correlated to VHI (P = .0001). The probability that VHI was or =150 was high; the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was equal to 0.844 (confidence interval, 0.783-0.906; P = .0001) with an optimal cutoff value of 21.6 mg/L, about 5 x N. CONCLUSIONS: CRP appears useful to evaluate CD activity, especially to predict inactive or low activity CD.

Référence

Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2006 Jul;4(7):882-7