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Serum protein concentrations as predictors of serum immunoglobulin G concentration in neonatal foals
Samuel D A Hurcombe1, Adriel L Matthews, Victoria H L Scott
1Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. Samuel.Hurcombe@cvm.osu.edu
Objective:
To determine the predictive value of serum concentrations of total protein (sTP), albumin (sAlb), and globulin (sGlob) measured by automated calorimetric assays to estimate serum immunoglobulin G (sIgG) concentrations in neonatal foals and identify failure of transfer of passive immunity when compared to turbidoimmunometric assay determinations of sIgG.
Design:
Retrospective and prospective analysis of laboratory data.
Setting:
University tertiary care facility.
Animals:
Group 1 (retrospective): foals (n = 45) ≤7 days of age in which sIgG, sGlob, sAlb, and sTP concentrations were measured on an automated chemistry analyzer. Group 2 (prospective): foals (n = 31) ≤7 days of age with same laboratory data collected used to validate equations generated from group 1 foals.
Interventions:
Spearman rank correlations between measured sIgG and serum protein concentrations were performed. When significant correlation was found, sIgG was estimated using an sGlob simple linear regression and estimated using a sGlob, sTP, and sAlb multiple linear regression. Comparisons between estimated and measured sIgG was performed using Kruskal-Wallis testing. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were calculated to identify foals with sIgG < 8.0 g/L [<800 mg/dL].
Measurements And Main Results:
sIgG was correlated with sGlob, sTP, and sAlb (ρ = 0.8, 0.6, and -0.3, respectively; P < 0.05). Estimated sIgG and measured sIgG were not different (P > 0.9). In group 1 foals, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 73%, 76%, 73%, and 83%, respectively, for sGlob, and 90%, 76%, 75%, and 90%, respectively, for multiple proteins estimated sIgG identification of failure of transfer of passive immunity. Test qualities were improved in group 2 foals.
Conclusions:
Serum protein concentrations may be used to estimate sIgG concentrations in newborn foals. Further investigation using a larger sample size is needed to validate this methodology of assessing humoral immunity in neonatal foals.
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