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Resumen Existe una gran variedad de marcadores utiles tanto en el diagnostico como en el seguimiento de la enfermedad inflamatoria intestinal. Clasicamente se han utilizado los serologicos, ampliamente distribuidos y accesibles, pero en los ultimos anos han cobrado importancia los fecales, en especial la calprotectina fecal, por haber demostrado mayor precision a la hora tanto de establecer la sospecha de la enfermedad como de predecir la curacion mucosa o la persistencia de actividad inflamatoria. La calprotectina fecal muestra buena capacidad para predecir estudios endoscopicos patologicos, pero tiene una especificidad limitada ya que puede alterarse en otros cuadros digestivos con sintomas similares. La calprotectina fecal presenta mayor precision cuando se asocia a otros parametros, en especial a la proteina C reactiva, y a escalas clinicas de actividad inflamatoria. Finalmente, hay multiples marcadores de nueva generacion, serologicos y fecales, de los que hay escasa evidencia, aunque algunos han mostrado resultados prometedores en diferentes estudios.

There are many useful biomarkers for initial diagnosis and the management of inflammatory bowel disease. Serologic biomarkers have been traditionally used because they are widely disposable, but recently faecal biomarkers, especially faecal calprotectin, have acquired great importance as they have shown to be more precise when establishing suspicion of the disease and also as predictors of mucosal healing or persistence of inflammatory activity. Faecal calprotectin is a good tool for predicting abnormal endoscopic studies, but has limited specificity because its levels can be altered in many digestive diseases presenting with similar symptoms. The precision of faecal calprotectin is higher when associated with other altered parameters, especially with C-reactive protein, or with clinical scores of inflammatory activity. Finally, there are many new generation serologic and faecal biomarkers. Despite there not being much evidence about these yet, some of them have shown promising results in different studies.

Clinical Case: We present a family that has 5 members: the parents and 3 children, 41, 44 and 43 years old, respectively. Ofthese, the father, the son and one of the daughters have poor hearing. There is a family history of other cases of deafness.