TY - JOUR T1 - Fecal Calprotectin in Children with the Enthesitis-related Arthritis Subtype of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol SP - 2274 LP - 2275 DO - 10.3899/jrheum.110508 VL - 38 IS - 10 AU - MATTHEW L. STOLL AU - MARILYNN PUNARO AU - ASHISH S. PATEL Y1 - 2011/10/01 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/38/10/2274.abstract N2 - To the Editor:Subclinical gut inflammation is present in two-thirds of adult and pediatric patients with spondyloarthritis (SpA)1,2 and predicts a chronic course of arthritis2,3. Thus, there may be value in evaluating the gut in patients with SpA. However, commonly used tests, such as colonoscopy, barium studies, and computed tomography, are limited by expense, invasiveness, or radiation exposure4, prompting a need for noninvasive surrogate markers. Serologic markers revealed a large number of false-positive tests5.Fecal calprotectin is a sensitive and specific marker for the presence of inflammatory bowel disease or other intestinal illnesses6. This test has not heretofore been used to assess for subclinical gut inflammation in patients with arthritis. In this study, we measured fecal calprotectin levels in children with enthesitis-related arthritis (ERA), comparing them to children with non-SpA subtypes of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), as well as children with unrelated connective tissue diseases (CTD) and noninflammatory control subjects.We enrolled 4 groups of children: (1) 9 with the ERA subtype of JIA; (2) 17 with other subtypes of JIA [persistent oligoarticular, n = 6; extended oligoarticular, n = 1; rheumatoid factor-negative (RF–) polyarticular, n = 8; RF+ polyarticular, n = 2]; (3) 9 with unrelated CTD (dermatomyositis, n = 3; localized scleroderma, n = … Address correspondence to Dr. Punaro; E-mail: Marilynn.Punaro{at}TSRH.org. ER -