THURSDAY, Aug. 17 (HealthDay News) -- Antibodies against two carbohydrates found in the serum of Crohn's disease patients are novel markers that discriminate between Crohn's and other inflammatory bowel diseases, according to a study in the August issue of Gastroenterology.
Iris Dotan, M.D., from Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in Israel, and colleagues screened for antiglycan antibodies in the serum of 72 patients with Crohn's disease, 56 with ulcerative colitis and 41 healthy controls using a glycan array. The results were then validated using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 124 patients with Crohn's disease, 106 with ulcerative colitis and 101 controls with non-inflammatory bowel syndrome gastrointestinal diseases.
Antibodies against mannan, laminaribioside and chitobioside significantly discriminated between Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Twelve of 27 Crohn's disease patients who were negative for Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibodies were positive for laminaribioside and chitobioside antibodies. Crohn's disease was diagnosed with a sensitivity of 77.4 percent and a specificity of 90.6 percent in patients who were positive for mannan, laminaribioside or chitobioside antibodies. The specificity rose to 99.1 percent if at least two of these antibodies were present. In Crohn's patients, there was a significant link between higher levels of antibodies against mannan or laminaribioside and small intestinal disease.
The study "provides an important advance in the field of serologies for Crohn's disease," states the author of an accompanying editorial.
Abstract
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Editorial
