CLINICAL BIOMARKER PROFILES SUPPORTING THE DIAGNOSIS OF INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE IN GERIATRIC PATIENTS IN A ROMANIAN TERTIARY CENTER
ANA-GABRIELA PRADA 1,2, RUCSANDRA-ILINCA DICULESCU 1,3, TUDOR STROIE 1,3,* , MIHAI MIRCEA DICULESCU 1,3, GABRIEL-IOAN PRADA 1,4,5
1 “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania
2 Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Hospital of Chronic Diseases “Saint Luke”, Bucharest, Romania
3 Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Center for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Fundeni Clinical Institute, Bucharest, Romania
4 Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, National Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics “Ana Aslan”, Bucharest, Romania
5 Academy of Romanian Scientists, Bucharest, Romania
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Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), represented by ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD), have distinct histopathological and clinical features. Disease activity is influenced by patients’ biological age; therefore, evaluation of clinical biomarkers may improve assessment in older adults. We conducted a longitudinal observational study including 60 older adult patients diagnosed with IBD. Medical, laboratory, and imaging records were reviewed over a 6-month period. All patients were admitted to the Gastroenterology and Hepatology Clinic of the Fundeni Clinical Institute and underwent imaging and laboratory testing at the same institution. Diagnostic approaches varied across the cohort, combining imagistic investigations with histology and inflammatory biomarkers. The most frequently used biomarkers were fecal calprotectin and C-reactive protein (CRP). At 6 months, fecal calprotectin levels decreased in patients with UC, while CRP levels decreased in patients with CD. Including clinical biomarkers into the diagnostic algorithm for IBD in older adults as a gold standard may enable earlier detection of disease activity, support timely prevention of complications, and improve clinical outcomes in this particularly frail population of affected older patients.
