Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Clonality testing helps diagnose chronic gut disease in dogs
By Luckschander-Zeller, Nicole et al.·Published in Veterinary immunology and immunopathology·2019·Clinic for Internal Medicine·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Clonality testing as complementary tool in the assessment of different patient groups with canine chronic enteropathy.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs with chronic gastrointestinal issues, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and food-responsive diarrhea, underwent special testing to help differentiate their conditions from intestinal lymphoma, a type of cancer. The testing looked for specific genetic patterns in their intestinal tissue samples. After receiving appropriate treatment, all the dogs showed significant improvement in their symptoms. While some results suggested the presence of abnormal cell growth, the dogs responded well to therapy, indicating that their conditions were likely non-cancerous.
People also search for: dog chronic diarrhea treatment · canine inflammatory bowel disease symptoms · dog intestinal lymphoma diagnosis
Abstract
Differentiation between canine chronic enteropathy (CCE) and intestinal lymphoma is a diagnostic challenge as histopathology might fail to yield unequivocal results. Detection of clonal rearrangements of the T-cell-receptor gamma (TCRG) chain and IG heavy chain (IGH) V-J genes offer a useful solution. In this retrospective study, histopathology samples of 35 CCE patients and 7 healthy Beagle dogs underwent clonality testing. Patients suffered either from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), food responsive diarrhea (FRD) or protein loosing enteropathy secondary to IBD (PLE/IBD). Healthy Beagles served as controls (CO). Canine IBD activity index (CIBDAI) and histopathological WSAVA-grading differed significantly (p<0.001) between groups. CIBDAI improved significantly after appropriate therapy (p < 0.0001). Intestinal biopsies of all CO showed polyclonal patterns for B- and T-cell primers. All samples from CCE patients showed polyclonal patterns for the B-cell primers. Targeting TCRG, 4 patients showed a monoclonal or oligoclonal pattern of the lymphocytic infiltrates in the duodenum and/or colon. Clinical improvement was observed in all dogs. Although a small cell lymphoma cannot be excluded in view of the short follow up duration, a false positive result, in the sense of a canonical rearrangement or unspecific amplification due to a antigenic stimulation in a non-neoplastic inflammatory process is possible.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31378220/