Inflammatory diseases are hard to evaluate in veterinary patients and clinical criteria can be misleading. Thus, biomarkers of inflammation can be of high value. Unfortunately, classical hematological and biochemical parameters used to evaluate inflammation lack sensitivity, especially in cats.

There is a growing interest in acute phase proteins (APP) in veterinary medicine, in both diagnosis and treatment response monitoring of inflammatory diseases.

The aim of this study was to compare APP to classical parameters for evaluating inflammation in cats.

Thirty-five cats with various inflammatory diseases were prospectively enrolled with owner consent along with 16 healthy cats. White blood cell (WBC) count, neutrophil count, total proteins, albumin, albumin/globulin ratio, band cell count (BCC), neutrophil toxicity score (NTS), fibrinogen, and serum amyloid A (SAA) were measured for each of them.

The sensitivity of APP - fibrinogen and SAA (97% [CI 91–100%] and 94% [CI 86–100%], respectively) - was much higher than blood smear criteria - BCC and NTS (80% [CI 66–94%] and 86% [CI 73–99%], respectively) - and blood parameters such as total proteins (46% [CI 29–63%]), albumin (34% [CI 18–50%]), WBC count (37% [CI 21–53%]), and neutrophil count (34% [CI 18–50%]).

The specificity was perfect for several parameters: 100% for WBC count, neutrophil count, albumin, fibrinogen, and NTS - and very good for the others: SAA (94% [CI 82–100%]), BCC (83% [CI 53–100%]) and total proteins (82% [CI 62–100%]).

This study shows that APP are very sensitive for evaluating inflammation in cats compared to other biomarkers.

Disclosures

Disclosures to report.

The study was sponsored by SCIL Laboratories but they did not interfere in the interpretation of the results.