Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Refinement of canine pancreatitis model: inducing pancreatitis by using endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography.
- Journal:
- Comparative medicine
- Year:
- 2009
- Authors:
- Ruben, Dawn S et al.
- Affiliation:
- Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine · United States
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
Researchers have been looking for better ways to study pancreatitis, a painful condition affecting the pancreas, especially in dogs since it closely resembles the condition in humans. In a recent study, they tried a new technique called endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), which is a procedure often used in people, to see if it could safely induce pancreatitis in dogs. While the procedure did show changes in the dogs' blood and tissue that indicated pancreatitis, most of the dogs did not show the usual signs of the disease, like severe abdominal pain, vomiting, or low energy. This new method seems to offer a safer way to study pancreatitis in dogs without causing the typical symptoms.
Abstract
The causes and treatments of pancreatitis have been studied in diverse species, but the canine pancreatitis model has been used most often due to its similarities to the condition in humans. Although pancreatitis in dogs can be induced readily by numerous methods, managing these dogs can be difficult because they often develop severe abdominal pain, vomiting, inappetance, and lethargy. In an effort to study pancreatitis, we performed a pilot study to determine whether an endoscopic pancreatic procedure would be possible in a dog and whether, through various manipulations, a new method of inducing pancreatitis could be developed. The model uses endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), a common procedure in human gastroenterology that has been associated with postprocedural pancreatitis. Although all 8 dogs used in developing the ERCP model had both biochemical and histologic changes consistent with pancreatitis, 7 of the 8 dogs remained free of classic clinical signs of the disease. This method is presented as a refinement of a canine model and presents an alternative method of inducing pancreatitis, with decreased risk of developing associated clinical signs.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19295057/