Association of fecal calprotectin concentrations with disease severity, response to treatment, and other biomarkers in dogs with chronic inflammatory enteropathies.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Calprotectin is a marker of inflammation, but its clinical utility in dogs with chronic inflammatory enteropathies (CIE) is unknown. OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of fecal calprotectin in dogs with biopsy-confirmed CIE. ANIMALS 127 dogs. METHODS: Prospective case-control study. Dogs were assigned a canine chronic enteropathy clinical activity index (CCECAI) score, and histologic lesions severity was assessed. Fecal calprotectin, fecal S100A12, and serum C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured. Food- or antibiotic-responsive cases (FRE/ARE, n = 13) were distinguished from steroid-/immunosuppressant-responsive or -refractory cases (SRE/IRE, n = 20). Clinical response to treatment in SRE/IRE dogs was classified as complete remission (CR), partial response (PR), or no response (NR). RESULTS: Fecal calprotectin correlated with CCECAI (ρ = 0.27, P = .0065) and fecal S100A12 (ρ = 0.90, P < .0001), some inflammatory criteria, and cumulative inflammation scores, but not serum CRP (ρ = 0.16, P = .12). Dogs with SRE/IRE had higher fecal calprotectin concentrations (median 2.0 µg/g) than FRE/ARE dogs (median 1.4 µg/g), and within the SRE/IRE group, dogs with PR/NR had higher fecal calprotectin (median 37.0 µg/g) than dogs with CR (median 1.6 µg/g). However, both differences did not reach statistical significance (both P = .10). A fecal calprotectin ≥15.2 µg/g separated both groups with 80% sensitivity (95% confidence interval [95%CI] 28%-100%) and 75% specificity (95%CI 43%-95%). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE Fecal calprotectin could be a useful surrogate marker of disease severity in dogs with CIE, but larger longitudinal studies are needed to evaluate its utility in predicting the response to treatment.