Research Article

Evaluation of Serum Leucine-Rich Alpha-2 Glycoprotein as a New Inflammatory Biomarker of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Table 1

Baseline characteristics of the study population used to evaluate LRG concentrations in the sera of patients with IBD and healthy individuals.

Ulcerative colitisCrohn’s diseaseHealthy individuals

No. of participants989692
Sex (male/female)54/4454/4252/40
Age (years) (median, IQR)41.6 (33.0–59.7)33.5 (24.3–48.9)39.6 (30.4–49.6)
Disease distributionProctitis/left-sided colitis/pancolitis 15/37/46Ileitis/colitis/ileocolitis 20/29/47
Disease duration (years) (median, IQR)4.37 (1.0–9.0)9.1 (2.91–15.8)
Treatments
 5-Aminosalicylic acid (%)Oral 72 (73.4), topical 26 (27.0)Oral 76 (79.2)
 Prednisolone (%)Oral 17 (17.3), topical 8 (8.1)Oral 14 (14.6)
 Immunomodulator (%)22 (22.4)35 (37.1)
 Leukocytapheresis (%)6 (6.1)1 (1.0)
 Antitumor necrosis factor-α (%)7 (7.1)59 (61.5)
 Indigo naturalis (%)19 (19.3)0 (0)
 None (%)9 (9.1)9 (9.3)

LRG: leucine-rich alpha-2 glycoprotein; IBD: inflammatory bowel disease; IQR: interquartile range.