With passion for rheumatology!
The evaluation of the inflammatory status is crucial for the assessment of disease activity and therapy response in systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic sclerosis, psoriasis arthritis or microscopic polyangiitis. A promising new biomarker in this context is the increasingly important inflammation parameter circulating calprotectin (cCALP).
Calprotectin in inflammatory diseases
Calprotectin is a protein complex that mainly occurs in granulocytes and monocytes and is released in inflammatory processes. Faecal calprotectin (fCALP), i.e. calprotectin in stool, can be measured in chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (CIBD) such as Crohn’s disease. In gastroenterology, the determination of fCALP allows differentiation of inflammatory from functional complaints as well as disease and therapy monitoring.
In the past years, cCALP has increasingly shifted into the focus of rheumatological diagnostics. Studies show that high cCALP titers correlate with disease activity and the presence of autoantibodies in different rheumatic diseases.1,2 This makes the determination of cCALP a valuable addition to established inflammation parameters such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). As opposed to CRP, which is produced in the liver and released systemically, calprotectin is released directly at the site of inflammation and thus reflects local inflammatory processes more directly, e.g. in the case of rheumatoid arthritis.3
Two new assays for quantitative cCALP determination
Euroimmun now offers two powerful assays for quantitative determination of cCALP: the Circulating Calprotectin ELISA and the ChLIA IDS Fluid Calprotectin*. Both assays are characterised by a high specificity for the biologically relevant calprotectin heterocomplex as well as short incubation times.
Besides manual processing, the Circulating Calprotectin ELISA also allows fully automated processing of serum and EDTA plasma samples using the EUROIMMUN Analyzer I and the EUROIMMUN Analyzer I-2P.
For the fully automated IDS Fluid Calprotectin* there are three automation solutions suiting different laboratory requirements available to test serum samples: the IDS iSYS*, the IDS-i10* and the IDS i20*. All three instruments are random-access systems that allow batch and continuous loading, as well as STAT loading for prioritised processing of emergency samples.
1 Manfredi M et al. Autoimmun Rev. 22(5):103295 (2023).
2 Carnazzo V et al. Rheumatology (Oxford). 63(1):26-33 (2024).
3 Hurnakova J et al. PLoS One. 12(8):e0183420 (2017).
* Manufactured by Immunodiagnostic Systems Limited (IDS); IDS-i10, IDS-iSYS, IDS i20 are trademarks of IDS.
Discover our portfolio for rheumatological diagnostics here. Get an overview of the different methods and corresponding automated systems that we offer. Together we will find the right solutions for your laboratory!
