A variety of inflammatory markers, coupled with changes in a number of haematological and biochemical parameters have classically been used to diagnose, monitor, and prognosticate disease in horses. Unfortunately these traditional markers respond fairly slowly to the presence of disease and inflammation and have wide normal ranges (Allen and Cold 1988; Pepys et al., 1989). Serum amyloid A (SAA), and haptoglobin are acute phase proteins common to humans, cattle, sheep, mice, and several other species, including the horse. In several of these species, plasma concentration of SAA has been shown to increase 1000-fold following tissue injury, cellular necrosis, inflammation, and infection and decline rapidly in the recovery phase. In the studies presented here the concentration of serum amyloid A (SAA), haptoglobin and fibrinogen and other indices of health were measured in a number of different groups of horses, including; normal horses, those subjected to operative surgery, horses with surgical colic, racehorses in training, some of which had evidence of gastric ulceration, and foals with respiratory disease. Acute phase protein concentration was modeled with the outcome and with other commonly measured indices of health relevant to the disease states of interest. The study indicates that there is an association between acute and chronic inflammation and between the present of disease both overt and latent and suggests that the concentration of a number of acute phase proteins could be used to aid decision making when planning diagnostic or treatment interventions in horses.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:705600 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Pollock, Patrick J. |
| Publisher | University of Glasgow |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://theses.gla.ac.uk/7951/ |
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