1h ago
Researchers found “striking” differences in serum amyloid concentrations between patients with different conditions.
Chris Simpson
Job Title
Image: yana136 / Adobe Stock
In their first-of-its-kind study, published in the Journal of Small Animal Practice, they found “striking” differences in SAA concentrations between patients with different conditions.
Researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of medical records of cats presented with respiratory distress to the Centre Hospitalier Vétérinaire AniCura Nordvet in Lille, France, between October 2021 and December 2024 that had an SAA assay performed within 48 hours of admission.
The 22 cats were divided into two groups, 15 inflammatory and 7 cardiac/neoplastic. The former group included infectious or non-infectious inflammatory lower respiratory tract diseases including aspiration pneumonia, feline lower airway disease and pulmonary toxoplasmosis. The latter was subdivided into cardiac (three cats with left-sided congestive heart failure) and neoplastic (four with pulmonary adenocarcinoma or mediastinal lymphoma) subgroups.
Median SAA concentration was “significantly higher” in the inflammatory group (57.5μg/mL) compared to the cardiac/neoplastic group (5μg/mL).
Significant differences among the inflammatory, cardiac and neoplastic subgroups were also noted; however, pairwise comparisons were said to not be statistically significant.
The researchers suggested the optimal SAA concentration cut-off to differentiate between the inflammatory and cardiac/neoplastic groups was 8.6μg/mL, which had a sensitivity of 80 per cent and specificity of 100 per cent.
Over three-quarters (17 of 22) of the cats survived to discharge during their hospitalisation.
Of the five that died, three cats from the inflammatory group did so from cardiopulmonary arrest associated with progression of their underlying disease and one was euthanised, while one cat from the neoplastic group was also euthanised.
No significant difference was found in SAA concentration at initial presentation between cats surviving to discharge (12.2μg/mL) and cats that died before discharge (27.4μg/mL).
The researchers suggested that as there is currently no biomarker or combination of biomarkers to reliably differentiate between the possible aetiologies of respiratory disease in cats, SAA concentration measurement could help to avoid other more invasive tests.
They also argued that several biomarkers could potentially be combined to determine the origin of respiratory signs in cats, but they called for larger studies to validate their proposed cut-off value and establish the usefulness of SAA concentration in distinguishing between infectious and non-infectious inflammatory diseases.
Lead author Eva Berro, an internal medicine resident at the AniCura Nordvet hospital, said: “This is the first study to look at SAA in feline lower respiratory tract disease, and the difference we found between inflammatory and cardiac or neoplastic cases was striking.
“However, this was a small retrospective study, so larger prospective studies are needed before SAA can be used routinely.”