Association of fecal calprotectin concentrations with disease severity, response to treatment, and other biomarkers in dogs with chronic inflammatory enteropathies.
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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 (=0.27, P=.0065) and fecal S100A12 (=0.90, P<.0001), some inflammatory criteria, and cumulative inflammation scores, but not serum CRP (=0.16, P=.12). Dogs with SRE/IRE had higher fecal calprotectin concentrations (median: 2.0 g/g) than FRE/ARE dogs (median: 1.4 g/g), and within the SRE/IRE group, dogs with PR/NR had higher fecal calprotectin (median: 37.0 g/g) than dogs with CR (median: 1.6 g/g). However, both differences did not reach statistical significance (both P=.10). A fecal calprotectin 15.2 g/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.
