Summary of study characteristics of included studies addressing the test accuracy question of FC testing in the detection of IBD
| Study characteristic | Outcome |
| Study characteristics: | |
| Publication type (studies) | |
| Full text | 32 |
| Abstract | 6 |
| Year of publication (range) | 2000–2018 |
| Population size (range) | 31–1031 |
| Geographical region (studies): | |
| UK | 14 |
| Rest of Europe | 16 |
| Asia | 2 |
| Middle East | 2 |
| North Africa | 1 |
| Russia | 1 |
| Canada | 1 |
| USA | 1 |
| Patient characteristics: | |
| Age (range) | 14–97 years |
| IBD prevalence (range) | 2.1%–76% |
| FC assay type (studies)*: | |
| Immunoassays | |
| ELISA | 32 |
| FEIA | 5 |
| CLIA | 3 |
| PETIA | 2 |
| POCT | 10 |
| Setting (studies)† | |
| Primary care | 5 |
| Secondary care | 29 |
| Outpatients and inpatients | 12 |
| Referred patients | 17 |
| Mix | 2 |
| Target condition (studies)*: | |
| IBD | 23 |
| Inflammatory disease | 5 |
| Organic disease | 19 |
| Non-target condition (studies)*: | |
| IBS | 12 |
| Functional disease | 2 |
| Non-IBD | 12 |
| Non-organic disease | 16 |
| Non-inflammatory disease | 5 |
| Other | 3 |
| FC test data collection (studies): | |
| Prospectively for patients with eligible symptoms in primary care | 1 |
| Prospectively for patients at time of referral in primary care | 1 |
| Retrospectively of routine FC tests in primary or secondary care | 10 |
| Prospectively prior to a planned colonoscopy in secondary care | 23 |
| Prospectively during the assessment for the need of colonoscopy in secondary care | 1 |
| Unclear | 2 |
| Reference standard (studies): | |
| Colonoscopy with biopsy | 13 |
| Colonoscopy±biopsy | 7 |
| Endoscopy+other imaging tests | 8 |
| Endoscopy+follow-up | 3 |
| Endoscopy+other imaging tests+follow-up | 5 |
| Unclear | 2 |
*Some studies evaluated multiple tests/clinical questions.
†Two studies were unclear about the setting.
CLIA, chemiluminescent immunoassay; FC, faecal calprotectin; FEIA, fluorescence enzyme immunoassay; IBD, inflammatory bowel disease; IBS, irritable bowel syndrome; PETIA, particle-enhanced turbidimetric immunoassay; POCT, point-of-care test.