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Will mucus in stool result in high fecal calprotection levels?

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 2/15/2016 4:43 PM (GMT 0)
Hi all!

I am doing the good old fecal calprotectin test again to measure inflammation. Not to be gory, but the sample I am submitting has a bunch of mucus on it. Will this cause the test to show high calprotectin levels?
Posted 2/15/2016 4:48 PM (GMT 0)
Not necessarily. If you have inflammation, you will have a high result. Mucus is probably an indication that you're flaring, which means inflamed, which means higher resulr. I have had inconsistent results with a calprotectin in the past. I am thankful for the test though, it's so much easier than a scope!
Posted 2/15/2016 11:03 PM (GMT 0)
From my reading around best practice for collection I came across suggestion that mucous will affect the result so if possible try to collect first morning stool and pick out the parts that are not mucous covered (not a fun job), I read that the calprotectin can bind into the mucous and lead to poor results

www.calprotectin.co.uk/faqs/

"The sample must be collected without any chemical or biological additions in the collection device. Alpha Labs has been informed by Arne Roseth that the mucous contains glycoproteins that can bind with Calprotectin and not release it. Usually there are sections of the sample that are free from mucous and more solid. If a sample is mostly mucous it is likely not first morning stool. Mucous can affect the reproducibility of the data"
Posted 2/16/2016 12:39 AM (GMT 0)

London Lurker said...
From my reading around best practice for collection I came across suggestion that mucous will affect the result so if possible try to collect first morning stool and pick out the parts that are not mucous covered (not a fun job), I read that the calprotectin can bind into the mucous and lead to poor results

www.calprotectin.co.uk/faqs/

"The sample must be collected without any chemical or biological additions in the collection device. Alpha Labs has been informed by Arne Roseth that the mucous contains glycoproteins that can bind with Calprotectin and not release it. Usually there are sections of the sample that are free from mucous and more solid. If a sample is mostly mucous it is likely not first morning stool. Mucous can affect the reproducibility of the data"

Yikes, I dropped off the sample as it was. Hope that I get an accurate result even with the mucus. I don't really trust this test, but I guess we'll see what it shows :-(
Posted 2/18/2016 11:15 PM (GMT 0)
It's been a good test for me but one thing I did notice was that when I was on daily enemas (pred and mesalazine) my numbers went right back down to nearly in normal range but I had a lot of symptoms and scope showed 40cm of inflammation so I'm not sure how accurate it will be for people on high dose rectal meds.
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