LRG and NGAL are potential diagnosis and disease activity biomarkers for inflammatory bowel disease

Background

Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and serum leucine-rich α-2 glycoprotein (LRG) are reported as potential biomarkers in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but the difference in diagnostic efficacy has not been reported. We aimed to investigate the clinical value of NGAL and LRG in IBD diagnosis and disease assessment.

Methods

One hundred IBD patients, including 75 Crohn’s disease (CD) and 25 ulcerative colitis, and 100 healthy controls were enrolled. The serum NGAL and LRG concentrations were quantified by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate their diagnostic performance.

Results

The serum concentrations of NGAL and LRG were significantly higher in IBD patients than in healthy controls (P < 0.001). Serum NGAL is significantly correlated with LRG (r = 0.574, P < 0.001). Serum LRG showed a better capacity to identify IBD with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.90 (sensitivity 89 %, specificity 78 %), compared to NGAL with an AUC of 0.84 (sensitivity 85 %, specificity 71 %). Additionally, serum NGAL and LRG were highly correlated with disease activity in CD patients (r = 0.865 and 0.878, P < 0.001), and gradually increased with disease activity severity (P < 0.05).

Conclusion

Serum NGAL and LRG are potential diagnostic and disease activity biomarkers for IBD, which have good clinical application value.