CRP and faecal calprotectin

[Bets]

What makes faecal calprotectin high when CRP if 0.7 and ESR is normal and all other blood indicators are normal.

I read that if a body is full of pathogens the neutrophils move to the mucosal lining to fight the pathogens, the calprotectin can be quite high. If the disease is in control the CRP remains low. Any thoughts anyone?

B

 

[Lady Organic]

I cant answer you in medical terms, but my CRP is high only when my disease is at a severe state. This parameter is of no help to me indicating a starting flare, this is the case for a lot of IBD patients as i have read it many times here on this forum. For others, it is a very sensitive marker of inflammation.
calpro has proven to be a lot more of a reliable indicator of a debuting flare in my case.

 

[Bets]

Interesting. For us the CRP is the first indicator of flare or inflammation. It was 17 when diagnosed and then went to 37 on another flare. Now feeling better it is 0.7.

So wondering why the calprotectin is still high? So many unknowns in this disease. Even GI was not able to explain

 

[Lady Organic]

Once I had a rhuematologist who insited I go right away to make the blood test if I had a debuting arthritic flare. I think she was interested in the CRP and told me it tended to be high at first and then decrease after the initial days of the flare. or it was the Sed rate, Im not 100% sure on this but I think, thats pretty it. CRP could maybe also fluctuate in IBD I guess?
But now that you have high calpro, do you feel any symptoms? Do you feel sick?
Once, a IBD GI in a conference told me calpro can be as sensitive and announce a flare up to 6 months before clinical signs. Calpro is definately not this sensitive in my case, but thats what I have been told.
If your calpro is high, I would definately keep a close eye on things.

 

[Maya142]

Generally, CRP and ESR are not as sensitive as Fecal Calprotectin. They could be elevated with a cold/virus for example or even an injury, but FC is specific to the gut. For some people, ESR and CRP are never elevated and for others, they are good markers - it really varies. But they are not gut specific like FC, so it is a better marker for most people with IBD.

FC is elevated when there is disease activity. It generally goes up quickly but takes a while to come down. So it may be that your disease is better controlled - explaining the normal ESR/CRP but not well controlled enough - there is some inflammation left, which explains the high FC.

For what it's worth, my daughters' rheumatologists never check ESR anymore - they say only CRP is useful for inflammatory arthritis. Same with my younger daughter's GI - she only does FC and CRP, not ESR.