[Reference ranges for biochemical parameters in guinea pigs for the Vettest®8008 blood analyzer]

Studies to establish reference ranges for blood chemistry in guinea pigs are scarce and always apply to bench chemistry. Most veterinary surgeries, however, use dry chemistry methods for in-house blood analysis, for which no reference ranges are available in guinea pigs. In this study, reference ranges for guinea pigs were established by the use of a common dry chemistry blood analyzer (Vettest®8008).

The animals were pets from clients of the Potsdam Veterinary Hospital (24 males, 34 females). The age ranged from 8 weeks to 5 years. Plasma samples were prepared for routine blood chemistry analysis. The investigation comprised 20 parameters (see below). Reference ranges were established via SPSS Statistics 17.0 from 2.5%- and 97.5%-percentiles.

Enzymes: alkaline phosphatase: 50.80-328.10 U/l; alanine aminotransferase: 41.45-165.35 U/l; amylase: 726.93-1831.55 U/l; aspartate aminotransferase: 25.25 to 349.23 U/l; creatine kinase: 66.13-1255.40 U/l; γ-glutamyl transferase: 0.45-90.75 U/l; lactate dehydrogenase: 5.61-1503.00 U/l, lipase: no measurable activity. Substrates: albumin: 17.45-31.65 g/l; ammonia: 4.80-225.30 mmol/l; cholesterol: 0.00-2.06 mmol/l; creatinine: 23.90 to 73.45 µmol/l; total bilirubin: 2.00-17.60 µmol/l; total protein: 50.00-70.85 g/l; glucose: 4.62-19.55 mmol/l; blood urea nitrogen: 2.04-11.28 mmol/l; triglycerides: 0.46-4.23 mmol/l. Globulins results by calculation: 30.43-42.00 g/l. Electrolytes: anorganic phosphate: 0.72-2.12 mmol/l, calcium: 2.58-3.16 mmol/l; magnesium: 0.72 to 1.60 mmol/l.

Some major differences were found between the results of three recent studies and the present study, respectively. This leads to the conclusion that reference ranges obtained by differing methods are not necessarily useful for the veterinary in-house laboratory. Instead, in-house analyzers require their own specific reference ranges. Possible reasons for the differences in reference ranges of the compared studies may be due to undetected subclinical diseases and the use of differing chemical or statistical methods.