Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are both common and difficult to differentiate. Because both are distinct conditions with contrasting treatment strategies, distinguishing between the two is essential in patients who present with symptoms that generate clinical suspicion.
The differential diagnosis for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) includes irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). While the clinical presentation is similar, IBD is an inflammatory disease, while IBS is a noninflammatory disease. View this "Hot Topic" to learn about testing for IBD and IBS.
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Serologic testing for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis
Serologic testing for IBD is only used when diagnosis made through flexible sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy with mucosal biopsies and radiographic studies doesn't clearly differentiate between ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Our data-driven serology panel examines only the characteristic patterns of antibodies with demonstrated clinical utility, including:
Aligns with peer-reviewed literature supporting the use of three serologic tests in limited applications for IBD diagnosis.
Offers in-depth analysis with detailed reports that include only relevant information, which helps contextualize results and provide clarity on disease presence.
Provides ordering physicians the autonomy to make a diagnosis based on patient-specific factors.
In this test specific episode of the "Answers From the Lab" podcast, Melissa Snyder, Ph.D., explains how IBDP2, when used after first-line testing has failed, can distinguish between ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
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C-reactive protein testing to gauge mucosal healing
A focus on mucosal healing reduces the need for steroids and risk of hospitalization and surgery. Unfortunately, complete mucosal healing can be hard to achieve, and agreement has not yet been reached on how much improvement is required for better outcomes.
The CALM trial1 from 2018 found that an approach geared toward reducing inflammatory markers of calprotectin and serum c-reactive protein, in addition to symptom reduction in patients with Crohn’s disease, improved mucosal healing and led to better clinical and endoscopic outcomes than a conventional approach.
Colombel JF, Panaccione R, Bossuyt P, et al. Effect of tight control management on Crohn’s disease (CALM): a multicentre, randomised, controlled phase 3 trial. Lancet. 2018 Dec 23;390(10114):2779-2789.
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