Serum C-reactive protein concentrations in dogs with epilepsy
C-reactive protein (CRP) is an acute-phase protein produced by the liver during systemic inflammation. In humans, some epilepsies are associated with increased serum CRP (sCRP) concentrations, but this has yet to be proven in veterinary studies. Dogs with structural epilepsy (SE) and normal interictal neurological examination are hard to distinguish from dogs with idiopathic epilepsy (IE) without the use of advanced imaging. Therefore, the aim of this retrospective observational cohort study was to investigate if there were increases in sCRP in dogs with epilepsy and to compare the sCRP concentrations between dogs with SE and dogs with IE
Dogs with SE and IE from a referral hospital population were enrolled. The Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the sCRP concentrations within 24 hours of the last epileptic seizure between dogs with SE or IE.
The population study included 8 dogs with SE and 12 dogs with IE. Dogs with SE had higher sCRP concentrations than dogs with IE (8.9 [range <2.2-53.2] mg/L vs. <2.2 [range <2.2-6.9] mg/L; p = 0.043). Five of the eight (62%) dogs with SE had an sCRP concentration above the reference interval, compared with none of the 12 dogs with IE.
In conclusion, this study found that sCRP concentrations were higher in this cohort of dogs with SE than in those with IE. Other inflammatory causes were also not exclusively ruled out, although further clinical investigations were not indicated. Further studies with larger cohorts of dogs are warranted to validate if sCRP can be used as an additional biomarker for SE.
“Serum C-reactive protein concentrations in dogs with structural and idiopathic epilepsy”. Elizabeth K Mahon, et al. Vet Rec. 2023 Jul 28;e3211. doi: 10.1002/vetr.3211.
Source: https://bvajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/vetr.3211
Comments
Related Articles
More news
Copyright © 2025 - All Rights Reserved
ISSN 2768-198X
List
Add
Please enter a comment