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©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Oct 28, 2015; 21(40): 11469-11480
Published online Oct 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i40.11469
Published online Oct 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i40.11469
Are faecal markers good indicators of mucosal healing in inflammatory bowel disease?
Gudula JAM Boon, Andrew S Day, Departments of Paediatrics, University of Otago, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand
Gudula JAM Boon, Chris J Mulder, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, VU University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, 1012 WX Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Richard B Gearry, Departments of Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no relevant conflict of interests for the authors contributing to this study.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Richard B Gearry, Professor, Departments of Medicine, University of Otago, PO Box 4345, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand. richard.gearry@cdhb.govt.nz
Telephone: +64-3-3641567 Fax: +64-3-3640935
Received: May 8, 2015
Peer-review started: May 11, 2015
First decision: June 2, 2015
Revised: June 19, 2015
Accepted: September 30, 2015
Article in press: September 30, 2015
Published online: October 28, 2015
Processing time: 168 Days and 4.7 Hours
Peer-review started: May 11, 2015
First decision: June 2, 2015
Revised: June 19, 2015
Accepted: September 30, 2015
Article in press: September 30, 2015
Published online: October 28, 2015
Processing time: 168 Days and 4.7 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: With regard to mucosal inflammation and response to therapy in Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis patients, mucosal healing may be a more reliable target for treatment than clinical and biochemical assessment. The available studies in this review show that faecal biomarkers are promising non-invasive indicators of mucosal healing and they could be an appropriate surrogate to endoscopy (the gold standard) in inflammatory bowel diseases patients. However, due to a wide variability in the use of clinical indices and marker cut offs, it’s difficult to compare their performances. Moreover, a clear definition of mucosal healing is needed.