Beschreibung:
The concentration of calprotectin in feces (fCal) is a clinically useful marker of chronic gastrointestinal inflammationin humans and dogs. No commercial assay is widely available to measure fCal in small animal medicine, to date. Thus, weverified the immunoturbidimetric fCAL turbo assay (Bühlmann) of fCal for canine and feline fecal extracts by determininglinearity, spiking and recovery, and intra-assay and inter-assay variability. We determined RIs, temporal variation over 3 mo,and effect of vaccination and NSAID treatment. Observed:expected (O:E) ratios (x̄ ± SD) for serial dilutions of feces were 89–131% (106 ± 9%) in dogs and 77–122% (100 ± 12%) in cats. For spiking and recovery, the O:E ratios were 90–118% (102 ± 11%)in dogs and 83–235% (129 ± 42%) in cats. Intra- and inter-assay CVs for canine samples were ≤19% and ≤7%, and for felinesamples ≤22% and ≤21%. Single-sample RIs were <41 μg/g for dogs and <64 μg/g for cats. With low reciprocal individualityindices, using population-based fCal RIs is appropriate, and moderate fCal changes between measurements (dogs 44.0%; cats:43.2%) are considered relevant. Cats had significant (but unlikely relevant) fCal increases post-vaccination. Despite individualfCal spikes, no differences were seen during NSAID treatment. The fCAL turbidimetric assay is linear, precise, reproducible,and sufficiently accurate for measuring fCal in dogs and cats. Careful interpretation of fCal concentrations is warranted in bothspecies during the peri-vaccination period and for some patients receiving NSAID treatment.