Low plasma butyrylcholinesterase activity in dogs: prevalence, association with underlying disorders, laboratory...

Low blood butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) activity is associated with obesity, pancreatitis, inflammation, sepsis, and malignancy in people, often with negative prognostic value. The clinical relevance of BChE activity in dogs remains unclear.

Describe the prevalence of low BChE activity in a large population of dogs and its association with selected underlying disorders, outcome, and clinicopathological variables. We hypothesized that low BChE activity would be associated with inflammatory disorders and a negative outcome.

A total of 950 client-owned dogs presented to a university teaching hospital with BChE activity measured within 24 h of admission.

Retrospective observational study of clinical records and laboratory data.

Admission BChE activities ranged from 482 to 17 348 U/L (median, 4553 U/L; interquartile range [IQR], 3485-5926 U/L) and were below reference intervals (RI) in 83 of 950 dogs (8.7%) at admission and in 53 of 207 (25.6%) dogs with repeat in-hospital measurements. Low BChE activity was associated with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and sepsis, but the predictive value was lower than that of C-reactive protein (CRP). Low admission BChE activity was associated with increased odds of non-survival, lower hematocrit and cholesterol concentrations and increased band neutrophil percentages, but no associations were found with obesity, acute pancreatitis, or malignancy.

Activity of BChE behaves as a negative inflammatory marker in dogs, but its utility as a standalone clinical classifier for SIRS or sepsis is limited and inferior to CRP. Low BChE activity is associated with poor prognosis but is not an independent predictor of outcome.