Inflammatory Bowel Disease

As of 2015, a reported 3 million individuals are living with an IBD diagnosis in the U.S.¹ Despite the high disease burden, obtaining a definitive diagnosis can take months and employing effective treatment to obtain remission can take years. The current gold standard for diagnosing and monitoring IBD is colonoscopy, which is expensive, invasive, and requires extensive bowel preparation. To mitigate the need for serial colonoscopies, noninvasive approaches have been developed. This includes survey-based approaches (e.g., Harvey-Bradshaw Index (HBI)), the Crohn’s disease activity index (CDAI), blood tests (e.g., erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein), and stool tests (e.g., calprotectin and lactoferrin). While existing noninvasive tests provide some ability to assist with the diagnosis, they cannot provide qualitative information on efficacious therapeutics or disease status.