Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Fecal protein tests to help diagnose chronic gut disease in cats
By Karra, Dimitra A et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary internal medicine·2023·University of Thessaly·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Fecal acute phase proteins in cats with chronic enteropathies.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of cats with chronic digestive issues, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and gastrointestinal lymphoma, were studied to find reliable markers in their feces that could help diagnose and monitor their conditions. Researchers measured specific proteins in the feces before and after treatment, which included dietary changes and medications like prednisolone and chlorambucil. They found that certain protein levels were significantly different in cats with these conditions compared to healthy cats, and some levels decreased after treatment, suggesting these markers could help track how well the cats respond to therapy.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Chronic enteropathies (CE) are common in cats and reliable biomarkers that can distinguish different causes and predict or monitor response to treatment are currently lacking. HYPOTHESIS: To evaluate certain acute phase proteins in feces that could potentially be used as biomarkers in cats with CE. ANIMALS: Twenty-eight cats with either inflammatory bowel disease (IBD; n = 13), food-responsive enteropathy (FRE; n = 3) or small cell gastrointestinal lymphoma (SCGL; n = 12) and 29 healthy control cats were prospectively enrolled. METHODS: Fecal concentrations of haptoglobin, alpha-1-acid-glycoprotein (AGP), pancreatitis-associated protein-1 (PAP-1), ceruloplasmin, and C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured using Spatial Proximity Analyte Reagent Capture Luminescence (SPARCL) immunoassays before and after initiation of treatment. Cats were treated with diet and/or prednisolone (IBD cats), plus chlorambucil (SCGL cats). RESULTS: Compared with controls, median fecal AGP concentrations were significantly lower (25.1 vs 1.8 μg/g; P = .003) and median fecal haptoglobin (0.17 vs 0.5 μg/g), PAP-1 (0.04 vs 0.4 μg/g) and ceruloplasmin (0.15 vs 4.2 μg/g) concentrations were significantly higher (P < .001) in cats with CE. Median fecal AGP concentrations were significantly lower (P = .01) in cats with IBD and FRE (0.6 μg/g) compared with cats with SCGL (10.75 μg/g). A significant reduction was found in CE cats after treatment for median fecal ceruloplasmin concentrations (6.36 vs 1.16 μg/g; P = .04). CONCLUSIONS: Fecal AGP concentration shows promise to differentiate cats with SCGL from cats with IBD and FRE. Fecal ceruloplasmin concentrations may be useful to objectively monitor response to treatment in cats with CE.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37401847/