Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a type of inflammatory bowel disease that usually affects the rectum and progresses to the beginning of the colon to involve the whole. The use of noninvasive methods such as fecal calprotectin (FCP) measurement may be considered as a reliable and inexpensive approach to assess the disease severity or treatment change strategy.

In this retrospective cross-sectional study, records of 56 UC hospitalized patients with exacerbation between May 2016 and April 2017 were assessed based on IBD Data Bank Software in Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases and Research Center (GLDRC), Guilan province, Iran between. A questionnaire of demographic characteristics, clinical findings and FCP level was completed. Montreal classification severity of ulcerative colitis in and Mayo disease activity index were scored. All data were entered into SPSS-21 software and analyzed for descriptive and analytical analysis.

This study showed that FCP was significantly different in terms of disease severity based on both Mayo score (P = 0.007) and Montreal classification (P = 0.001). In patients with mild symptoms, no increase in FCP was observed, but in patients with moderate and severe elevations in FCP levels was significant. Also, there was a relation between C - reactive protein (CRP) surge and disease severity (P= 0.02). Furthermore, comparison of regression among high-chance patients based on FCP showed a significant relation to higher erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) levels and smoking, p=0.01 and p=0.05, respectively.

it can be concluded that FCP levels are related to the disease severity. Non-invasive methods, such as FCP assay, may seem to be an alternative to aggressive, costly and time-consuming methods, such as colonoscopy and biopsy, to reduce the suffering of patients and ultimately help improve the quality of life of patients.