OXIDATIVE STRESS AND INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE IN PEDIATRICS

Abstract

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are chronic, idiopathic and complex diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Their two most common forms are ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease, (CD). The incidence and prevalence of IBD increase, the age profile of IBD patients is also changing, in a direction that includes childhood. C-reactive protein (CRP) and calprotectin have been traditional inflammatory markers in IBD. The primary diagnostic tool in the hands of gastroenterologists remains endoscopy, which is an invasive, expensive, and patient-unwanted procedure. Furthermore, a wide range of diseases, from malignant and infectious to functional, can present with similar symptoms as IBD. This makes the diagnostic process even more complicated and requires a wide range of laboratory and instrumental studies, takes a lot of time and money. The oxidative imbalance presence in patients with IBD has been demonstrated. In addition, some markers of oxidative stress in IBD have the potential to become markers for the differential non-invasive diagnosis of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD and CMA) and would shorten the time to diagnosis. Further, would become a suitable method for monitoring inflammation and the effect of treatment in these diseases.

Keywords

• oxidative stress
• ibd
• uc
• cd
• pediatric