Background: Procalcitonin (PCT), a precursor protein of the hormone calcitonin, is a sensitive inflammatory marker\nin human medicine, which is primarily used for diagnosis of bacterial sepsis, but is also useful in diagnosis of\nexacerbation of asthma and COPD. In this study, PCT was evaluated as a potential biomarker for different chronic\npneumopathies in the horse using an equine specific ELISA in comparison to established clinical markers and\ndifferent interleukins.\nSixty-four horses were classified as free of respiratory disease, recurrent airway obstruction (RAO), inflammatory\nairway disease (IAD) or chronic interstitial pneumopathy (CIP) using a scoring system. PCT concentrations were\nmeasured in plasma (n = 17) and in the cell-free supernatant of bronchoalveolar lavage (n = 64). PCT concentrations\nwere correlated to interleukins IL-1�Ÿ and IL-6 in BALF, clinical findings and BALF cytology.\nResults: The median PCT concentrations in plasma were increased in respiratory disease (174.46 ng/ml, n = 7)\ncompared to controls (13.94 ng/ml, n = 10, P = 0.05) and correlated to PCT in BALF supernatant (rs = 0.48). Compared to\ncontrols (5.49 ng/ml, n = 15), median PCT concentrations in BALF supernatant correlated to the overall clinical score\n(rs = 0.32, P = 0.007) and were significantly increased in RAO (13.40 ng/ml, n = 21) and IAD (16.89 ng/ml, n = 16), while\nno differences were found for CIP (12.02 ng/ml, n = 12). No significant increases were found for IL-1 and IL-6 between\ncontrols and respiratory disease in general as well as different disease groups.\nConclusions: Although some correlations were found between PCT in plasma, BALF supernatant and clinical scores,\nPCT in BALF does not seem to be a superior marker compared to established clinical markers. PCT in plasma seems to\nbe more promising and a greater number of samples should be evaluated in further studies.
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