Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine

BACKGROUND: Little information is available of markers that assess the disease course in dogs with idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

OBJECTIVES: Evaluate relationship between disease severity and serum and fecal biomarkers in dogs with idiopathic IBD before and after treatment.

ANIMALS: Sixteen dogs with idioptahic IBD and 13 healthy dogs.

METHODS: Prospective case control study. Canine IBD activity index (CIBDAI) clinical score, serum concentrations of C-reactive protein (CRP), perinuclear antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (pANCA), and serum and fecal canine calprotectin (cCP) were measured before and after 21 days of treatment.

RESULTS: Serum CRP (median 3.5 mg/L; range: 0.1-52.4 mg/L), fecal cCP (median 92.3 μg/g; range: 0.03-637.5 μg/g), and CIBDAI scores significantly increased in dogs with IBD before treatment compared with serum CRP (median 0.2 mg/L; range: 0.1-11.8 mg/L; P < .001), fecal cCP (median 0.67 μg/g; range: 0.03-27.9 μg/g; P < .001) and CIBDAI (P < .001) after treatment. No significant associations between CIBDAI scores and before or after treatment serum biomarkers. There was a significant association between fecal cCP and CIBDAI scores before treatment (rho = 0.60, P = .01). CRP and fecal cCP significantly decreased after treatment (median 3.5 mg/L v. 0.2 mg/L; P < .001 and 92.3 μg/g v. 0.67 μg/g; P = .001, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Our data indicate that measurement of fecal cCP concentration is a useful biomarker for noninvasive evaluation of intestinal inflammation. Dogs with severe signs of GI disease more often have abnormal markers than dogs having less severe disease.