A. Briganti; C. Di Franco; V. Meucci
Department of Veterinary Science, Veterinary Teaching Hospital “Mario Modenato,” University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
Objective
To compare serum and plasma levels of syndecan-1 and hyaluronan in dogs with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and healthy dogs.
Methods
Thirty critically ill dogs with SIRS (Hauptmann criteria) were enrolled in a prospective observational study. Hematobiochemical parameters, arterial blood gas analysis, sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA), and quick SOFA (qSOFA) scores were calculated on presentation and each day until discharge or death. Serum and plasma samples for syndecan-1 and hyaluronan measurements were taken on presentation (T0), after 24, 48, and 72 hours, and after 1 week, and stored in different aliquots at -20°C. Twenty healthy dogs were also enrolled as a control group for comparison of syndecan-1 and hyaluronan levels. Two different ELISA kits were used (canine and human) for syndecan-1 and a canine ELISA kit for hyaluronan measurement. Conventional statistical analyses was performed.
Results
Three critically ill dogs were excluded due to incomplete data. Of the 27 remaining dogs, 10 survived and 17 were non-survivors. All samples from healthy dogs were below the limit of detection for canine syndecan-1 and only 5 dogs (all non-survivors) in the critically ill group had detectable levels (189±178 pg/mL). Human syndecan-1 was significantly lower (p=0.01) in healthy dogs (n=7, 293±310 pg/mL) compared to critically ill dogs (n=8, 1013±587 pg/mL), all non-survivors. There were no significant differences in hyaluronan concentrations between healthy (1.34±0.5 ng/mL) and critically ill (1.63±0.6 ng/mL) dogs, or between survivors (1.29±0.5 ng/mL) and non-survivors (1.28±0.5 ng/mL). SOFA scores were significantly higher (p=0.001) in non-survivors, 7 (3–12) compared with survivors 1 (0–7).
Conclusions
This study found it is not possible to differentiate critically ill from healthy or survivors from non-survivors using the canine ELISA kit for syndecan-1 and hyaluronan. The human kit may be a better prognostic indicator, although it is still not able to detect low concentrations of syndecan-1. Further studies are necessary to evaluate the impact of storage length and temperature on biomarker detection. The SOFA score appears to predict mortality, although there is still considerable overlap between survivors and non-survivors.