2015 ACVIM Forum Research Abstract Program

Records of dogs with chronic enteropathy (CE) and concurrent PLE that were diagnosed at three referral clinics, were retrospectively analyzed. The inclusion criteria were a history of chronic gastrointestinal signs (> 3 weeks), hypoalbuminemia (<2 g/dL) of gastrointestinal origin, histopathological evidence of gastrointestinal inflammation on biopsies, and available follow up. The exclusion criteria were the presence of underlying or concurrent disorders other than PLE secondary to CE, or an immunosuppressive therapy used within 2 weeks before intestinal biopsy. Dogs were classified as either short-term (≤6 months) survivors (ST) or long-term (>6 months) survivors (LT), and the clinical and clinicopathological variables were investigated between groups. The ability to predict the outcome was determined by multiple regression and ROC analyses. There must be no differences in treatment between groups.