Veterinary clinicians from the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies have launched a new test to support veterinary surgeons diagnose and monitor chronic inflammatory enteropathy (CIE) in their feline and canine patients.
The test measures the levels of faecal calprotectin (fCal), the most reliable biomarker for inflammation in a patient’s intestines.
Dogs and cats with acute and chronic diarrhoea have been found to have significantly higher fCAL levels than healthy controls. As with humans with irritable bowel disease (IBD), fCAL increases in animals with CIE and decreases following successful treatment.
fCAL also correlates with clinical severity as assessed by the canine chronic enteropathy clinical activity index (CCECAI) and with severity on histopathology.
First in Scotland
The test, the first of its type to be available in Scotland, was developed and validated by clinical pathologists from the University of Edinburgh’s Easter Bush Pathology and Specialists in Internal Medicine from the Hospital for Small Animals.
Results are available in less than a week and supplied with interpretation notes to give veterinary surgeons additional confidence in their diagnosis and treatment of CIE.
For more information and to submit a test visit www.ed.ac.uk/vet/services/easter-bush-pathology/resources