Association Of Fecal Calprotectin Concentrations With Disease Severity, Response To Treatment, And Other Biomarkers In Dogs With Chronic Inflammatory Enteropathies

BackgroundCalprotectin is a marker of inflammation, but its clinical utility in dogs with chronic inflammatory enteropathies (CIE) is unknown.ObjectiveEvaluation of fecal calprotectin in dogs with biopsy-confirmed CIE.Animals127 dogs.MethodsProspective case-control study. Dogs were assigned a canine chronic enteropathy clinical activity index (CCECAI) score, and histologic lesions severity was assessed. Fecal calprotectin, fecal S100A12, and serum C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured. Food- or antibiotic-responsive cases (FRE/ARE, n=13) were distinguished from steroid-/immunosuppressant-responsive or -refractory cases (SRE/IRE, n=20). Clinical response to treatment in SRE/IRE dogs was classified as complete remission (CR), partial response (PR), or no response (NR).ResultsFecal calprotectin correlated with CCECAI (=0.27, P=.0065) and fecal S100A12 (=0.90, P<.0001), some inflammatory criteria, and cumulative inflammation scores, but not serum CRP (=0.16, P=.12). Dogs with SRE/IRE had higher fecal calprotectin concentrations (median: 2.0 g/g) than FRE/ARE dogs (median: 1.4 g/g), and within the SRE/IRE group, dogs with PR/NR had higher fecal calprotectin (median: 37.0 g/g) than dogs with CR (median: 1.6 g/g). However, both differences did not reach statistical significance (both P=.10). A fecal calprotectin 15.2 g/g separated both groups with 80% sensitivity (95% confidence interval [95%CI]: 28%-100%) and 75% specificity (95%CI: 43%-95%).Conclusions and Clinical ImportanceFecal calprotectin could be a useful surrogate marker of disease severity in dogs with CIE, but larger longitudinal studies are needed to evaluate its utility in predicting the response to treatment.