Cerebrospinal Fluid Creatine Kinase as a Biomarker in Dogs With Neurologic Disease: A Multivariate Analysis to Guide...

Area of Science:

• Veterinary Neurology
• Biomarker Discovery
• Canine Medicine

Background:

• Creatine kinase (CK) is linked to muscle injury but may indicate central nervous system damage.
• Previous studies explored CK as a biomarker for neurologic disease in veterinary patients.
• Existing literature lacks comprehensive control groups, necessitating further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) CK in neurologic dogs against a healthy control group.
• To determine the predictive value of CSF CK for disease etiology.
• To assess relationships between CSF CK and neuroanatomic localization, CSF parameters, and demographics.

Main Methods:

• CSF samples were collected from 95 neurologically affected dogs and 9 healthy Beagles.
• Creatine kinase (CK) and routine parameters were measured in CSF.
• A linear-mixed effects model was used to analyze relationships between variables.

Main Results:

• No significant difference in CSF CK was found between healthy and neurologically affected dogs overall.
• Dogs with metabolic disease showed a significant difference, but this was based on a small sample size (n=2).
• Age and CSF total protein predicted CSF CK levels; however, no correlation was found with neuroanatomic localization or other CSF parameters.

Conclusions:

• Cerebrospinal fluid CK appears to have limited utility in diagnosing or localizing neurologic diseases in dogs.
• Further research is recommended to explore alternative applications for this biomarker in veterinary medicine.