Intestinal fatty acid-binding protein is a biomarker for diagnosis of biliary tract infection

Yu Chieh Weng, Wei Ting Chen, Jung Chieh Lee, Yung Ning Huang, Chih Kai Yang, Hui Shan Hsieh, Chih Jung Chang*, Yang Bor Lu*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background and Aim: Biliary tract infection (BTI) is an inflammatory disease and commonly associated with bacteremia. Delays in diagnosis or treatment of BTI cause high morbidity and mortality. However, an early diagnosis depends on appropriate clinical investigations. Appropriate biomarkers are urgently needed to improve the BTI diagnostic rate. We hypothesized that intestinal fatty acid-binding protein (I-FABP) might be a potential biomarker for BTI diagnosis. Methods: We examined data from subjects aged ≥18 years diagnosed with BTI, including cholangitis and cholecystitis, whose blood samples were adequate for I-FABP and zonulin assessment. We also collected blood samples from healthy volunteers as the control group. We excluded subjects in both groups who received steroids, antibiotics, or probiotics within 1 month before hospital admission (BTI cohort) or participation in this research (controls). The main study endpoint was to compare the diagnostic ability of I-FABP to detect BTI in comparison with high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and zonulin. Results: The study collected the data of 51 patients with BTI and 35 healthy subjects. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) area under the curve (AUC) for I-FABP was 0.884 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.814–0.954), numerically higher than that for hs-CRP (0.880; 0.785–0.976) and zonulin (0.570; 0.444–0.697). We estimated that the optimal cutoff value of I-FABP was 2.1 ng/mL (sensitivity: 0.804; specificity: 0.829) for the diagnosis of BTI. Conclusions: In summary, this study suggests that I-FABP may be a potential alternative biomarker to hs-CRP for diagnosing BTI. Further research should verify the use of I-FABP as a marker for BTI diagnosis, but also for other inflammatory diseases.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1160-1165
Number of pages6
JournalJGH Open
Volume5
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - 10 2021
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. JGH Open: An open access journal of gastroenterology and hepatology published by Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Foundation and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Keywords

  • biliary tract infection
  • biomarker
  • diagnosis
  • intestinal fatty acid-binding protein

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