PCDAI (Pediatric Crohn Disease Activity Index)
The Pediatric Crohn's Disease Activity Index (PCDAI): eleven items for a total of 0 to 100.
Open the calculator → Runs in your browser. Data leaves only if you deliberately send a problem report from the interactive tool.
Example
- Abdominal pain
- 5
- Stools per day
- 5
- General well-being
- 5
- Weight
- 5
- Linear growth
- 0
- Abdomen
- 5
- Perirectal disease
- 0
- Extra-intestinal manifestations
- 0
- Age and sex band for the hematocrit threshold
- Male, 11 to 14 years
- Hematocrit, scored against the age and sex band above
- 31 percent
The other 2 values
- ESR - below 20 scores 0, 20 to 50 scores 2.5, above 50 scores 5
- 40 mm/hr
- Serum albumin
- 3.2 g/dL
Result: PCDAI 35 of 100: moderate to severe disease.
The tool opens with these values already filled in. Replace them with your own.
What the result means
- Weighting
- Eight clinical items score 0, 5, or 10. Hematocrit and ESR score 0, 2.5, or 5. Albumin scores 0, 5, or 10 like the eight, not like the other two labs.
- Hematocrit
- The threshold depends on age and sex, so a hematocrit of 34 is a 0 in a girl of 12 and 2.5 points in a boy of 12.
- Below 10
- Inactive disease.
- 10 to under 30
- Mild disease.
- 30 or above
- Moderate to severe disease.
What you enter
- Abdominal pain
- Stools per day
- General well-being
- Weight
- Linear growth (score by height velocity when possible; the height-channel reading is the alternative)
- Abdomen
- Perirectal disease
- Extra-intestinal manifestations (fever of 38.5 C or above for 3 days in the past week, definite arthritis, uveitis, erythema nodosum, pyoderma gangrenosum)
- Age and sex band for the hematocrit threshold - there is no single low-hematocrit cut
- Hematocrit, scored against the age and sex band above
The other 2 fields
- Abdominal pain [0 - none; 5 - mild, brief, does not interfere with activities; 10 - moderate to severe, daily, longer lasting, affects activities, nocturnal]
- Stools per day [0 - formed stools, or up to 1 liquid stool, no blood; 5 - up to 2 semi-formed stools with small blood, or 2 to 5 liquid stools; 10 - gross bleeding, or 6 or more liquid stools, or nocturnal diarrhea]
- General well-being [0 - no limitation of activities, well; 5 - occasional difficulty maintaining age-appropriate activities, below par; 10 - frequent limitation of activity, very poor]
- Weight [0 - weight gain, or voluntary weight stable or loss; 5 - involuntary weight stable, or weight loss of 1 to 9 percent; 10 - weight loss of 10 percent or more]
- Linear growth (score by height velocity when possible; the height-channel reading is the alternative) [0 - height velocity at or above minus 1 SD, or less than 1 channel decrease; 5 - height velocity below minus 1 SD and above minus 2 SD, or a decrease of 1 to less than 2 channels; 10 - height velocity at or below minus 2 SD, or a decrease of 2 or more channels]
- Abdomen [0 - no tenderness, no mass; 5 - tenderness, or mass without tenderness; 10 - tenderness, involuntary guarding, definite mass]
- Perirectal disease [0 - none, or asymptomatic skin tag; 5 - 1 or 2 indolent fistulae with scant drainage and no tenderness, or inflamed tags or fissures; 10 - active fistula with drainage, tenderness, or abscess]
- Extra-intestinal manifestations (fever of 38.5 C or above for 3 days in the past week, definite arthritis, uveitis, erythema nodosum, pyoderma gangrenosum) [0 - none; 5 - one; 10 - two or more]
- Age and sex band for the hematocrit threshold - there is no single low-hematocrit cut [child = 10 years or younger (either sex), 0 points at 33 or above, 2.5 points at 28 or above, 5 points below that; male11to14 = Male, 11 to 14 years, 0 points at 35 or above, 2.5 points at 30 or above, 5 points below that; male15to19 = Male, 15 to 19 years, 0 points at 37 or above, 2.5 points at 32 or above, 5 points below that; female11to19 = Female, 11 to 19 years, 0 points at 34 or above, 2.5 points at 29 or above, 5 points below that]
- ESR - below 20 scores 0, 20 to 50 scores 2.5, above 50 scores 5
- Serum albumin - 3.5 or above scores 0, 3.1 to 3.4 scores 5, 3.0 or below scores 10. Note this lab is full weight, unlike hematocrit and ESR
How this is calculated
Hyams JS, Ferry GD, Mandel FS, et al. Development and validation of a pediatric Crohn's disease activity index. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 1991;12(4):439-447. Read the source ↗
A reference and educational tool. Not medical, legal, or financial advice, and not a substitute for clinician judgment.