10th September 2020
Potential pitfall:
Faecal calprotectin testing is an incredibly sensitive investigation for detecting the presence of inflammation. It is raised in a wide variety of conditions including malignancy, inflammatory bowel disease and alcohol misuse. It is therefore not good at defining either the site or the cause of inflammation.
Helpful hint:
The NICE DG11 guidance recommends faecal calprotectin testing as an option to support clinicians with the differential diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), in adults with recent onset lower gastrointestinal symptoms for whom specialist assessment is being considered, if:
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- cancer is not suspected, having considered the risk factors (for example, age) described in the NICE guideline on suspected cancer and
- appropriate quality assurance processes and locally agreed care pathways are in place for the testing.
Cancer Keys are brought to you by GatewayC.
Download this Cancer Key here
Read the NICE NG12 guidance here
Access GatewayC’s ‘Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT)’ course here
