Non-invasive Serological Monitoring for Crohn's Disease Postoperative Recurrence

Introduction: Crohn's disease recurs after intestinal resection. This study evaluated accuracy of a new blood test, the Endoscopic Healing Index [EHI], in monitoring for disease recurrence. Methods: Patients enrolled in the prospective POCER study [NCT00989560] underwent a postoperative colonoscopic assessment at 6 [2/3 of patients] and 18 months [all patients] following bowel resection, using the Rutgeerts score [recurrence >= i2]. Serum was assessed at multiple time points for markers of endoscopic healing using the EHI, and paired with the Rutgeerts endoscopic score as the reference standard. Results: A total of 131 patients provided 437 serum samples, which were paired with endoscopic assessments available in 94 patients [30 with recurrence] at 6 months and 107 patients [44 with recurrence] at 18 months. The median EHI at 6 months was significantly lower in patients in remission [Rutgeerts

Automated summary

This study evaluated the accuracy of a new blood test called Endoscopic Healing Index (EHI) in monitoring the recurrence of Crohn's disease. The results showed that EHI had a high concordance with the Rutgeerts endoscopic score, suggesting its effectiveness as a monitoring method.