Fecal acute phase proteins in cats with chronic enteropathies

Background Chronic enteropathies (CE) are common in cats and reliable biomarkers that can distinguish different causes and predict or monitor response to treatment are currently lacking. Hypothesis To evaluate certain acute phase proteins in feces that could potentially be used as biomarkers in cats with CE. Animals Twenty‐eight cats with either inflammatory bowel disease (IBD; n = 13), food‐responsive enteropathy (FRE; n = 3) or small cell gastrointestinal lymphoma (SCGL; n = 12) and 29 healthy control cats were prospectively enrolled. Methods Fecal concentrations of haptoglobin, alpha‐1‐acid‐glycoprotein (AGP), pancreatitis‐associated protein‐1 (PAP‐1), ceruloplasmin, and C‐reactive protein (CRP) were measured using Spatial Proximity Analyte Reagent Capture Luminescence (SPARCL) immunoassays before and after initiation of treatment. Cats were treated with diet and/or prednisolone (IBD cats), plus chlorambucil (SCGL cats). Results Compared with controls, median fecal AGP concentrations were significantly lower (25.1 vs 1.8 μg/g; P = .003) and median fecal haptoglobin (0.17 vs 0.5 μg/g), PAP‐1 (0.04 vs 0.4 μg/g) and ceruloplasmin (0.15 vs 4.2 μg/g) concentrations were significantly higher (P