RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS OF THE 28th ECVIM-CA CONGRESS

Blood was obtained from 5 groups of dogs: WHWTs affected with CIPF (n=20, 14 females (F)/6 males (M), mean age=11.0y, range [5.2‐14.5]), healthy aged‐matched WHWTs (n=18, 11F/7M, 10.5y [5.3‐15.3]), and healthy dogs from other breeds not predisposed for CIPF: Jack Russel terriers (JR) (n=13, 8F/5M, 6.0y [3.0‐9.1]), Malinois Belgian shepherds (MBS) (n=13, 5F/8M, 6.5y [2.8‐10.8]) and King Charles spaniels (KCS) (n=13, 9F/4M, 6.5y [3.6‐9.3]). Serum was stored at ‐80°C until batched analysis. KL‐6 concentration was measured with a commercially available ELISA test (Canine Krebs Von den Lungen 6 Elisa kit, amsbio). Results were compared using a covariance analysis including the 5 groups defined above, gender and an interaction between groups and gender together with the effect of the age. The analysis was followed by post‐hoc comparisons between groups using t‐tests. Results show that only the effect of groups was significant (p=0.010). Serum KL‐6 concentration was higher in healthy WHWTs (4.8+/‐4.0 ng/ml) compared with KCS (1.6+/‐1.8 ng/ml) and MBS (2.2+/‐1.0 ng/ml) (p=0.001 and 0.013 respectively) and higher in JR (4.1+/‐2.9 ng/ml) compared with KCS (p=0.016). There was no difference between CIPF (3.2+/‐1.9 ng/ml) and healthy WHWTs (p=0.072).