Is fecal pyruvate kinase suitable for discrimination between inflammatory bowel disease exacerbation and acute gastroenteritis?
The performance of M2-PK in distinguishing between children with moderate-to-severe IBD and patients with infectious gastroenteritis was inferior to FC. Neither test had sensitivity ands pecificity sufficient for everyday clinical application.
The results suggest that investigator-observed flushing provides a valid estimate of ALDH2 genotype, but that self-report of facial flushing is biased, giving a substantial overestimate. Due to an increase in error variance, studies that rely solely on self-report of flushing will more often lead to the conclusion that no association exists. This study supports the importance of using ALDH2 genotype, rather than self-report of flushing or ALDH2 phenotype, when examining factors associated with differences in drinking behavior, response to alcohol and risk for alcoholism or alcohol-related disease among Asians.