Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Plasma nucleosome levels predict survival in dogs after trauma
By Letendre, Jo-Annie & Goggs, Robert·Published in Frontiers in veterinary science·2018·Centre DMV, Canada·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Concentrations of Plasma Nucleosomes but Not Cell-Free DNA Are Prognostic in Dogs Following Trauma.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs with trauma were evaluated to see if certain blood markers could help predict their chances of recovery. Researchers found that dogs with higher levels of nucleosomes (a type of protein fragment) in their blood were more likely to not survive their injuries compared to those with lower levels. While both nucleosomes and cell-free DNA levels were elevated in injured dogs, only nucleosomes were strongly linked to survival outcomes. This suggests that measuring nucleosome levels could be a useful tool for veterinarians when assessing the prognosis of injured dogs.
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Abstract
Trauma is common in dogs and causes significant morbidity and mortality, but it remains a challenge to assess prognosis in these patients. This study aimed to investigate the use of plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and nucleosome concentrations as prognostic biomarkers in canine trauma. Using a prospective, observational case-control study design, 49 dogs with trauma were consecutively enrolled from 07/2015 to 10/2017 and followed to hospital discharge. Dogs with animal trauma triage (ATT) scores ≥3 at presentation were eligible for enrollment. Dogs <3 kg or with pre-existing coagulopathies were excluded. Thirty-three healthy control dogs were also enrolled. Illness and injury severity scores were calculated using at-presentation data. Plasma cfDNA was measured in triplicate using a benchtop fluorimeter. Plasma nucleosome concentrations were determined in duplicate by ELISA. Mann-Whitneytests were used to compare biomarker concentrations between groups and between survivors and non-survivors. Associations between biomarkers were evaluated using Spearman's correlation coefficients. Alpha was set at 0.05. Concentrations of cfDNA and nucleosomes were significantly higher in injured dogs compared to healthy controls (≤ 0.0001). Nucleosomes and cfDNA concentrations were positively correlated (0.475,< 0.001). Concentrations of both cfDNA and nucleosomes were correlated with shock index (0.367,= 0.010,0.358,= 0.012 respectively), but only nucleosomes were correlated with ATT (0.327,= 0.022) and acute patient physiology and laboratory evaluation (APPLE) scores (0.356,= 0.012). Median nucleosome concentrations were significantly higher in non-survivors than in survivors [8.2 AU (3.1-26.4) vs. 1.6 AU (0.5-5.2);= 0.01]. Among illness severity scores, only APPLE was discriminant for survival (AUROC 0.912,< 0.001). In summary, in moderately-severely injured dogs, high nucleosome concentrations are significantly associated with non-survival.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30105230/