Combined serum albumin, fecal immunochemical test, and leucine-rich alpha-2 glycoprotein levels for predicting prognosis in remitting patients with ulcerative colitis

Abstract

Abstract This study investigated the usefulness serum leucine-rich alpha-2 glycoprotein (LRG) and fecal immunochemical tests (FIT) for predicting relapse in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). Data of 194 patients tested for LRG between January 2020 and June 2022 were retrospectively collected and clinical characteristics were recorded. Evaluation of correlations between LRG, FIT, clinical severity as reflected by the partial Mayo score and other biomarkers, revealed that LRG is strongly correlated with CRP levels and FIT was not correlated with CRP and albumin level. moderately correlated with albumin levels. As the partial Mayo score increased, the LRG level gradually increased. Regarding usefulness of LRG, FIT and other markers on prediction of relapse in remitting patients with UC. Although the median serum albumin and FIT were significantly different between patients with or without clinical relapse, the LRG level was not associated with clinical relapse. The cumulative remission rate was higher in patients with lower LRG than in patients with higher LRG, even when the serum albumin level was less than 4.4 mg/mL. Patients with both a lower LRG and FIT tended to have lower relapse rates than those in the other groups. Our study indicated that serum albumin level is useful for predicting relapse, even in remitting outpatients. Although LRG is not an independent factor for predicting clinical relapse, it is useful for identifying patients that are unlikely to relapse when combined serum albumin or FIT results.