الفهرس 
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Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social problems, communicative deficits, restrictive pattern of behaviors and interests.
Gastrointestinal manifestations were detected as a common comorbidity in autistic patients. Some studies suggested gut and brain link (gut brain axis) which may be inflammatory, immunological or genetic in nature.
Intestinal inflammation was detected in ASD patients in several studies by endoscopy, biopsy and laboratory methods. Faecal calprotectin was found to be the least invasive method for detection of intestinal inflammation.
This study aims to detect level of faecal calprotectin as a marker of bowel inflammation in children with autism and its possible relation to gastrointestinal manifestations if any.
The current study was conducted on forty ASD children matching DSM-V criteria and forty healthy age and sex matched controls. Twenty eight (28) ASD boys and 12 ASD girls shared in this study. There mean age ±SD was 6.53 ± 2.10 years. All cases were subjected to thorough history taking including information about perinatal history, type of delivery, post natal history, developmental milestones, onset of symptoms, family history and history of gastrointestinal manifestations. Gastrointestinal symptoms were assessed in cases by using 6-items gastrointestinal severity index. Clinical examination with thorough neurological examination and abdominal examination was done. Severity of ASD in cases was assessed by using CARS. Faecal calprotectin level was assessed in both cases and controls using ELISA.
Our study revealed that :
• High prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms among autistic patients, current study revealed that: thirty three (82.5%) of the patients were having gastrointestinal symptoms and in seven (7.5%) of them were asymptomatic.
• Total GSI score was low in 65% of patients and high in 35% of patients.
• Distribution of cases according to GSI showed that 70% of patients had offensive stool odor, 50% of patients had loose stool, 47.5% of patients had abdominal pain, 37.5% of patients had flatulence, 32.5% of patients had constipation and 17.5% of patients had diarrhea.
• There was a positive correlation between CARS and 6GIS and a significant relation at P value 0.003.
• Elevated FC levels were found in ASD patients with mean 47.03±26.68 which was statistically significant higher than those in controls with mean 37.08 ± 21.55, (p < 0.05).
• There was significant positive correlation between level of FC and 6GSI score of patients.