Fecal calprotectin is commonly used as a tool to diagnose patients with gastrointestinal symptoms. However, there is no definitive consensus on how to routinely interpret high stool calprotectin in patients with a normal colonoscopy in the clinic. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between bowel preparation for colonoscopy with fecal calprotectin levels in patients referred to the endoscopy center of Razi Hospital in Rasht

In a cross-sectional-analytical study, 58 patients who were candidates for colonoscopy and after obtaining informed consent, underwent total colonoscopy in the endoscopy department of Razi Hospital. The working method was that first, a stool sample was taken before the preparation for the colonoscopy to measure the amount of calprotectin, then the preparation for the patient started, and again the stool sample was taken before the colonoscopy (during bowel preparation) and its calprotectin level was checked. The same thing was repeated a week after the colonoscopy. And if any lesion is observed in the colonoscopy, a biopsy was taken from it. A checklist including recording demographic/clinical characteristics/colonoscopy and pathology findings was completed for all patients. The results of the tests were entered in the checklists, all pathology samples were referred to a pathologist and were observed and reported by a pathologist. Finally, the results of three stages of fecal calprotectin and the trend of changes and its relationship with colonoscopy findings and pathology results were evaluated. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 16 software and the significance level was considered 0.05

The average age of the participants was 48.22 ± 11.69 years. Of the 58 people studied, 36 (62.1%) were women. The results of the Friedman test showed that there is no statistically significant difference between the values of fecal calprotectin at different time points (P=0.146). The results of the Mann-Whitney test showed that before bowel preparation, there is no statistically significant difference between the values of calprotectin in stools of patients with normal and abnormal pathology (P=0.478). Also, no statistically significant difference was found between the two groups during bowel preparation (P=0.498) and one week after colonoscopy (P=0.580).

It seems that bowel cleansing does not have a significant role in the changes or increase of calprotectin level