Faecal calprotectin is not necessarily required as a screen for significant bowel disease in primary care

Objective NICE recommends measurement of faecal haemoglobin (f-Hb) using faecal immunochemical test (FIT) when colorectal cancer is suspected and calprotectin (f-Cal) in the context of inflammatory bowel disease, though neither is disease specific. During the COVID-19 pandemic, f-Hb has been a requirement prior to referral for endoscopy in England; f-Cal is often performed simultaneously. The aim of this study was to investigate test performance of both tests for significant bowel disease in those patients referred. Design All adult patients with simultaneous measurements of f-Hb and f-Cal between April 2019 and September 2020 were included. For those referred, outcomes were determined from clinical records. Results 650 patients with simultaneous samples for f-Hb an f-Cal were managed in Primary Care; 319 patients were referred to hospital; SBD was found in 32 (10.0%) (CRC 5, high risk adenomas 5, IBD 22). At a cut-off of 10 mu g/g for f-Hb and 200 mu g/g for f-Cal, the sensitivity, specificity and negative predictive value for diagnosis of SBD were 84.4%, 58.2% and 96.7% and 68.8%, 89.6% and 95.7%, respectively. Performance of both tests would have enabled diagnosis of two more cases of significant, but non-malignant, bowel disease but required over 4% more referrals for investigation. Conclusion Use of FIT has become established to assist prioritisation of patients for referral from Primary Care. Whilst introduced specifically for CRC, FIT performs well as a rule out for IBD in Primary Care and the use of f-Cal is not required.

Automated summary

This study investigated the performance of both f-Hb and f-Cal tests for significant bowel diseases in referred patients. The results showed that these tests have good sensitivity and negative predictive value for diagnosing colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel disease.