Plasma fibrinogen and C-reactive protein in dogs

Abstract

Complementary tests are essential for defining the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of diseases in animals. White blood count is the most common laboratory method for identifying and evaluating inflammatory processes in small animals. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate plasma fibrinogen and C-reactive protein as supplementary tools for diagnosing inflammatory processes in dogs, correlating them with the results of the white blood count and the clinical condition of the animal. The sample size was calculated considering the estimated population of dogs living in the rural area of Curuçá, PA, Brazil. The sample included randomly selected healthy and unhealthy dogs. The animals underwent a clinical examination and complete blood count, fibrinogen, and C-reactive protein tests. Of a total of 149 animals, 17.4% (26/149) had hyperfibrinogenemia, 39.6% (59/149) were C-reactive protein positive, and 48.3% (72/149) had leukocytosis. Of the cases of leukocytosis, 63.8% (46/72) were due to neutrophilia. The analysis of the plasma protein: fibrinogen ratio in animals with hyperfibrinogenemia showed that the increased results were related to inflammatory processes in 84.6% (22/26) of these dogs. The results showed that fibrinogen and C-reactive protein are promising tools to identify inflammatory processes in dogs even before the presence of clinical signs; therefore, they are considered supplementary routine care methods to detect recent inflammatory processes not yet identified in the white blood count.