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Published on: November 29, 2019
Interpretation of cerebrospinal fluid analysis from recumbent cows using different thresholds of red blood cell count
Maria Puerto-Parada1, Juan Carlos Arango-Sabogal2, Marie-Ève Bilodeau1
1Département de sciences cliniques, Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada.
Background:
Hemodilution of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) could confound interpretation of results. Accurately predicting total nucleated cells count (TNCC) and total protein concentration (TPC) attributable to hemodilution is difficult.
Objective:
To determine the effects of hemodilution on TPC and TNCC in bovine CSF.
Methods:
Retrospective review of CSF analysis results of downer dairy cows treated at Centre hospitalier universitaire vétérinaire between January 2006 and December 2014. Descriptive statistics were performed using 3 scenarios.
Results:
Among the 235 samples included, red blood cell (RBC) count (RBCC) ranged from 0 to 869 220 RBC/μL (median = 6.6), TPC ranged from 0.04 to 6.51 g/L (median = 0.27), and TNCC ranged from 0 to 7500 cell/μL (median = 1.1). Among the 157 samples that had <30 RBC/μL (a threshold used in other species), TPC and TNCC varied between 0.13 and 1.06 g/L (median = 0.27) and between 0 and 31.4 cell/μL (median = 0.6), respectively. Eighty-four samples had TPC <0.25 g/L and TNCC ≤4.5 cell/μL. Among those 84 samples, RBCC varied between 0 and 1290 RBC/μL (median = 4.7). In 20 samples, TNCC was 0 with a variation in RBCC between 0 and 840 RBC/μL (median = 3.9). No strong correlations between RBCC and TNCC and TPC were found.
Conclusions:
A cutoff around 200 RBC/μL is proposed as clinically meaninful in bovine CSF. Results between 200 and 1290 RBC/μL are equivocal.
