2016 ACVIM Forum Research Abstract Program

Furthermore, although lacteal dilation was noted in 76% of PLE cases, it was listed as a primary diagnosis in only 5 cases. Further investigation is required to determine if these differences represent a difference in underlying etiology, or should alter treatment strategy in specific cases. Perinuclear anti-neutrophilic antibodies (pANCA) have previously been shown to be serum markers in canine IBD, and more likely to be associated with food responsive diarrhea (FRD) cases than steroid responsive disease (SRD). The indirect immunofluorescence assay used in previous publications is based on isolation of canine granulocytes from donor dogs, which are subsequently fixed in ethanol on microscope slides, and then incubated with the patient serum and secondary antibody. This assay is time consuming and has been shown to have low inter-observer agreement. In this pilot study we therefore sought to investigate whether a commercially available human granulocyte indirect immunofluorescence assay could be used to detect pANCA in dogs and to evaluate preliminary sensitivity and specificity of the assay for groups of dogs with FRD versus SRD.