The systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) is an exacerbated defensive response to infectious or non-infectious diseases. If SIRS is diagnosed and an infectious agent is identified, dogs are recorded as septic. The development of sepsis is able to trigger vivid alterations in plasma lipid metabolism, which is commonly known as lipemia of sepsis. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has gained increasing attention in critically ill human patients as it reflects not only inflammation but also prognosis; in veterinary medicine, NLR has been analyzed in various clinical conditions but needs further investigation.

Hence, our aim was to evaluate the NRL and the lipid profile in a healthy dog population, compare it against septic dogs diagnosed with SIRS and check their usefulness in survival prediction.

Four groups were established: 20 healthy dogs (C), 27 septic dogs that developed SIRS (G1), 15 dogs of G1 that survived (G2) and 12 non-surviving dogs from G1 (G3). Hematology and NLR calculation, plasma biochemistry and lipidograms were run for all dogs. A Saphiro-Wilk test was used to assess data distribution. In view of the non-gaussian distribution, an ANOVA on Ranks test was run. Data are presented as mean ± standard deviation; significance was set at p<0.05.

NLR was 2.4±1.38 in C and 28.96±26.03 in G1 resulting in significant differences among groups (p<0.001); furthermore, NLR was significantly lower in G2 14.76±9.43 compared to G3 42.84±25.5 (p<0.05). Cholesterol (in mg/dl) was 153.2±31.3 in C,181.11±71.31 for G1,163.8±47.36 in G2 and 202.75±90.86 in G3. For triglycerides (in mg/dl) the values obtained were 38.51±17.63 for C, 87.57±56.5 in G1, 72.20±29.61 in G2 and 108.54±76.91 in G3. HDL-c (in mg/dl) was 136.25±27.44 for C, 82.32±38.31 in G1, 69.92±32.67 in G2 and 97.9±40.44 in G3. LDL-c (in mg/dl) was 14.3±4.05 for C, 40.05±32.96 in G1, 37.06±17.58 in G2 and 43.78±46.33 in G3. Significant differences between C and G1 (p<0.001) were observed for all the above-mentioned parameters except for cholesterol. There were no significant differences between G3 and G4 in neither of the lipid parameters studied (p>0.05).

In conclusion, septic dogs presenting SIRS show increased NLR, which also seems to be useful to predict the survival of these patients. Besides, lipemia in SIRS is characterized by plasma increases in triglycerides and LDL-c and decreased HDL-c, although they do not seem to have prognostic value.

Disclosures

No disclosures to report.