EVALUATION OF PLASMA CARDIAC TROPONIN I IN ASIAN ELEPHANTS (ELEPHAS MAXIMUS) USING TWO CLINICAL ANALYZERS

Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) is specific to myocardial tissue, highly conserved across taxa, and a reliable indicator of myocardial disease in human and veterinary medicine. Biomarkers, like cTnI, may be useful for cardiac evaluation of elephants because the application of other modalities is complicated by the size of the animal. The goal of this study was to establish observed ranges for plasma cTnI in Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) measured by two point-of-care analyzers. Blood was collected from captive juvenile (≤15 yr; n = 9), adult (16-50 yr; n = 42), and geriatric (>50 yr; n = 16) elephants. Following centrifugation, heparinized plasma was stored at 5°C prior to and in between analyses on iSTAT (Abbott Point of Care Inc, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA) and HUBI-QUANpro (Humiasis Co, Ltd, Anyang-si 14042, South Korea) analyzers. With the exception of two results, plasma concentrations of cTnI were below the limit of quantification (LOQ < 0.05 ng/ml) for the HUBI-QUANpro (n = 64), which prohibited comparison between the two analyzers. Observed ranges were determined for plasma cTnI concentrations reported by the iSTAT for the entire population sampled (n = 58; mean 0.011 ng/ml; SD ± 0.013 ng/ml; range 0.00-0.07 ng/ml; 95% CI 0.008-0.015 ng/ml; median 0.01 ng/ml) and with outliers excluded (n = 50; mean 0.007 ng/ml; SD ± 0.007 ng/ml; range 0.00-0.02 ng/ml; 95% CI 0.005-0.009 ng/ml; median 0.01 ng/ml). No significant differences were observed between age classes (P = 0.70) or sexes (P = 0.34). Higher cTnI concentrations were significantly correlated with increasing age (Pearson's r = 0.426; P = 0.002). Future studies are warranted to investigate the diagnostic potential of plasma cTnI in Asian elephants.