Serum C-reactive protein and ferritin concentrations in dogs undergoing leishmaniosis treatment

Monitoring of selected serum acute phase proteins like C-reactive protein (CRP) and ferritin could be useful for evaluation of the response to treatment in both naturally-occurring and experimentally-induced leishmaniosis. However studies until date have only been focused on dogs with an adequate response to the treatment and there is a lack of knowledge about the possible associations between the CRP and ferritin and the different clinicopathological conditions that can appear after treatment. Thus, the main objective of this retrospective study was to evaluate and compare the serum concentration of CRP and ferritin between three possible situations that dogs which undergo leishmaniosis treatment could have: responsive with total recovery, responsive with only clinical recovery but persistent abnormalities in biochemical analytes, and unresponsive with clinical and biochemical changes. All dogs which totally recovered after treatment showed CRP and ferritin values within reference ranges. Most of dogs classified as having only partial clinical remission had CRP and ferritin within the reference range values despite the presence of other biochemical abnormalities such as hyperglobulinemia, hyperproteinemia, or proteinuria. On the other hand, most of dogs in the unresponsive group had increased CRP and ferritin. Although the study has limitations due to the variability in the protocols and time periods of treatments, it can be concluded that CRP and ferritin concentrations within the reference ranges are usually associated with the absence of clinical signs and adequate response to treatment and increased CRP and/or ferritin values could reflect a lack of appropriate response to treatment.