2017 ACVIM Forum Research Abstract Program

A randomized study on 314 equine patients presented to the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital with the inclusion criteria of a complete blood count (CBC) submission. SAA samples were run on whole blood using the StableLab Lateral Flow Immunoassay. The horses were classified into 5 groups using clinical and diagnostic modalities from the VMTH Medical records, with no reference to the CBC or SAA results to aid in classification. The 5 groups included healthy (n = 36); healthy recently vaccinated (n = 10); inflammatory, non-infectious (n = 106); inflammatory, infectious (n = 121); and non-healthy, non-inflammatory (n = 41). The median SAA value for inflammatory non-infectious and inflammatory infectious were significantly different at 9.5 mg/mL and 181 mg/mL, respectively. To refine the model, the SAA values were categorized into normal, low, medium and high ranges. SAA was normal for 86% of the healthy group and for 80% of the non-healthy, non-inflammatory group. High elevations between 1,000 and 3,000 mg/mL were mainly distributed in the inflammatory infectious group (78%), with none in the healthy group. SAA values in the medium or high range correlated well with abnormalities to the white blood cell count and fibrinogen.