RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS OF THE 28th ECVIM-CA CONGRESS

Dogs with CE (n=33) showed significantly higher (P<0.01) 2‐AG [10.7 (3.87‐29.77)] and PEA [40.5 (30.05‐49.27)], compared to the CONTROL, while no statistical differences were found for AEA and OEA.In particular, in the comparison among the CONTROL, FRE (n=10), ARE (n=9), IBD (n=9) and PLE (n=5) groups, FRE showed higher levels of PEA [48.9 (40.5‐57.3), P<0.05] and OEA [93.0 (65.3‐122.1), P<0.05], ARE had higher levels of 2‐AG [11.2 (6.4‐24.9), P<0.01], the IBD group showed increased 2‐AG [15.4 (7.5‐130.3), P<0.01] and PEA [41.2 (38.2‐50.2), P<0.05], while PLE dogs had increased concentrations of 2‐AG [38.4 (11.2‐92.1), P<0.01] and decreased amounts of OEA [26.2 (18.2‐38.0), P<0.05] and PEA [11.9 (9.9‐23.7), P<0.05]. The overall accuracy of 2‐AG to exclude (‐LR 0.18, Sensitivity 94.4%, Specificity 70% at ≤3.8) or predict (+LR 7.78, Sensitivity 77.78%, Specificity 90% at >6.4) ARE or IBD was very high (AUC 0.90). Additionally, plasmatic OEA showed a good accuracy (AUC 0.77) to exclude (‐LR 0.18, Sensitivity 90.0%, Specificity 55.56% at ≤53.3) or predict (+LR 4.5, Sensitivity 50.0%, Specificity 88.89% at >90.7) FRE. Potential limitations were the sample size and the lack of eCBs analysis in intestinal biopsies. Yet, it can be concluded that 2‐AG and OEA may be a promising diagnostic tool for differentiating FRE from ARE and IBD in dogs with chronic gastrointestinal signs at presentation.