Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Blood neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio helps diagnose
By Becher, Anja et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary diagnostic investigation : official publication of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, Inc·2021·Department for Small Animals, Germany·View original on PubMed →
PetCaseFinder translated the abstract of this peer-reviewed paper into plain English so pet owners can read it. We do not publish original research — every detail traces back to the citation above. How we work →
Original publication title: Blood neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as a diagnostic marker in dogs with chronic enteropathy.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 93 dogs with chronic enteropathy (a long-term gut issue) had their blood tested to measure the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), which helps assess inflammation. The results showed that dogs with more severe symptoms had higher NLRs, and those with food-responsive enteropathy had lower NLRs compared to those with other types of enteropathy. This suggests that measuring NLR could help veterinarians determine the best treatment approach for dogs with chronic gut problems. The study indicates that NLR is a useful marker that can be easily checked during routine blood tests.
People also search for: dog chronic enteropathy symptoms · dog blood test neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio · dog gut health treatment
Abstract
Few routinely available biomarkers are clinically useful in assessing dogs with chronic enteropathy (CE) and aid in CE subclassification. The diagnostic potential of the blood neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has not been evaluated in canine CE. We evaluated the NLR in 93 dogs with CE (no steroid treatment for ≥2 wk prior) and tested for an association with clinical, clinicopathologic, and histologic characteristics and also with CE subclassification. NLR was significantly higher in CE dogs with severe clinical disease than dogs with mild clinical disease ( = 0.047). Hypoalbuminemia ( < 0.001), but not hypocobalaminemia, was associated with higher NLRs. NLR was correlated with fecal alpha-proteinase inhibitor concentrations (ρ = 0.47) and the serum-to-fecal alpha-proteinase inhibitor ratio (ρ = -0.48; both < 0.001) but not with serum or fecal inflammatory markers nor with the overall histologic score (all > 0.05). Dogs with steroid- or other immunosuppressant-responsive (IRE) or nonresponsive enteropathy (NRE) had significantly higher NLRs (median: 7.3) than dogs with food-responsive enteropathy (FRE; median: 3.0; = 0.003), and a NLR ≥5.5 best distinguished both groups of dogs. No difference in NLR was detected between dogs with IRE and dogs diagnosed with NRE. These findings suggest that leukogram changes (i.e., NLR) could be clinically useful in canine CE, and that neutrophils might play a role in the systemic inflammatory response associated with canine CE. The NLR can be easily assessed on routine hematology and can potentially aid in the subclassification of dogs with CE based on the response to treatment.
Find similar cases for your pet
PetCaseFinder finds other peer-reviewed reports of pets with the same symptoms, plus a plain-English summary of what was tried across them.
Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33554784/