2017 ACVIM Forum Research Abstract Program

In dogs with extrahepatic bile duct obstruction secondary to pancreatitis, age of 9 years or older, azotemia at admission, body temperature greater than 102.5°F at admission and lack of gallbladder distension on ultrasound are associated with an increased risk of death. Medical vs. surgical management, total bilirubin at admission, change in total bilirubin during hospitalization, and magnitude of increased liver enzyme activity were not significantly associated with outcome in this group of dogs. Canine Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is believed to be a multifactorial disease due to an abnormal immune response to intestinal microbes in genetically susceptible individuals. IL-1b, a pro-inflammatory cytokine, has previously been shown to be elevated in biopsies of dogs with food responsive disease in a small number of cases. The purpose of this study was to investigate duodenal levels of IL-1b protein in a larger number of dogs with different clinical severity of IBD. Duodenal biopsies from ten dogs each with mild IBD (Canine Chronic Enteropathy Clinical Activity Index, CCECAI 0-5), moderate IBD (CCECAI 6-8), severe IBD (CCECAI ≥9) and dogs with protein-losing enteropathy (PLE), as well as 10 healthy Beagle dogs were included in the study. Biopsy samples were weighed prior to manipulation. Samples were homogenized at 20 Hz for 2 minutes in 500 lL homogenization buffer (PBS containing 0.05% Tween-20) with protease inhibitor cocktail. Tissue homogenates were centrifuged at 12500 RCF for 2 minutes and the supernatants frozen at À80°C until the day of ELISA. Quantification of IL-1b protein expression was determined using a commercially available canine-specific IL-1b ELISA (Kingfisher Biotech Inc) following the manufacturer's assay instructions. All samples were analysed in duplicate. Median IL-1b expression (pg/ml/mg tissue) was 121.6 (range 38.3-219.4) in the severe IBD group; 19.7 (range 10.9-24.8) in the moderate severity IBD group; 13.3 (range 8.0-29.8) in the mild severity IBD group, 13.0 (range 8.0-27.9) in the PLE group, and 0.9 (range 0.3-1.4) in the healthy control dogs. There was a statistically significant difference in IL-1b expression between all IBD dogs and the healthy controls (p2 = 0.47, P < 0.001). The results of this study support previous findings that IL-1b may be involved in the pathogenesis of canine IBD. Criteria developed by the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) are commonly used for the assessment of feline intestinal biopsy specimens. However, the histological characteristics of intestinal biopsy specimens collected from healthy cats have not been well characterized using this scoring system. The aim of this study was to describe the histologic findings in endoscopically derived intestinal biopsy specimens from clinically healthy cats.