Investigation of the Usefulness of Serum Amyloid A in Supporting the Diagnosis of Equine Proliferative Enteropathy

Nicola Pusterla; Samantha Barnum; Jeffrey Allen Hall; Lacey Marshall-Lund; Connie Gebhart

doi:10.1016/j.jevs.2020.103151

Investigation of the Usefulness of Serum Amyloid A in Supporting the Diagnosis of Equine Proliferative Enteropathy

J Equine Vet Sci. 2020 Sep:92:103151. doi: 10.1016/j.jevs.2020.103151. Epub 2020 Jun 6.

Authors

Nicola Pusterla¹, Samantha Barnum², Jeffrey Allen Hall³, Lacey Marshall-Lund⁴, Connie Gebhart⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine and Epidemiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA. Electronic address: npusterla@ucdavis.edu.
² Department of Medicine and Epidemiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA.
³ Zoetis, Parsippany, NJ.
⁴ Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN.

PMID: 32797779
DOI: 10.1016/j.jevs.2020.103151

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine if serum amyloid A (SAA), a major acute-phase protein, could help support the diagnosis of equine proliferative enteropathy (EPE) caused by Lawsonia intracellularis infection in foals. Archived serum samples from 101 foals with enteric signs and hypoproteinemia were available for SAA testing. Based on immunodiagnostics for L. intracellularis, the foals were divided into EPE-suspect (67) and non-EPE-suspect cases (34). Serum amyloid A values ranged from 0 to 2,761 μg/mL (median 466 μg/mL) and from 0 to 2,555 μg/mL (median 192 μg/mL) for the EPE-suspect and the non-EPE-suspect cases, respectively. Although SAA can be measured patient-side and help determine the severity of the underlying inflammatory condition, SAA was unable to consistently support the diagnosis of EPE in hypoproteinemic foals with enteric signs.

Keywords: Equine proliferative enteropathy; Foal; Lawsonia intracellularis; Serum amyloid A; Testing.

MeSH terms

Animals
Desulfovibrionaceae Infections* / veterinary
Horse Diseases* / diagnosis
Horses
Intestinal Diseases* / diagnosis
Intestinal Diseases* / veterinary
Lawsonia Bacteria*
Serum Amyloid A Protein

Substances

Serum Amyloid A Protein