Clinic of Small Animal Medicine, Center for Clinical Veterinary Medicine, LMU Munich, Veterinärstr. 13, 80539 Munich, Germany.
Section of Clinical & Comparative Neuropathology, Center for Clinical Veterinary Medicine, LMU Munich, Veterinärstr. 13, 80539 Munich, Germany.
Viruses. 2021 Jan 27;13(2):186. doi: 10.3390/v13020186.
Cats with neurologic feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) are difficult to diagnose. Aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of detecting feline coronavirus (FCoV) RNA and spike (S) gene mutations in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).
The study included 30 cats with confirmed FIP (six with neurological signs) and 29 control cats (eleven with neurological signs) with other diseases resulting in similar clinical signs. CSF was tested for FCoV RNA by 7b-RT-qPCR in all cats. In RT-qPCR-positive cases, S-RT-qPCR was additionally performed to identify spike gene mutations.
Nine cats with FIP (9/30, 30%), but none of the control cats were positive for FCoV RNA in CSF. Sensitivity of 7b-RT-qPCR in CSF was higher for cats with neurological FIP (83.3%; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 41.8-98.9) than for cats with non-neurological FIP (16.7%; 95% CI 6.1-36.5). Spike gene mutations were rarely detected.
FCoV RNA was frequently present in CSF of cats with neurological FIP, but only rarely in cats with non-neurological FIP. Screening for spike gene mutations did not enhance specificity in this patient group. Larger populations of cats with neurological FIP should be explored in future studies.
患有神经型猫传染性腹膜炎（FIP）的猫很难诊断。本研究旨在评估检测脑脊液（CSF）中猫冠状病毒（FCoV）RNA 和刺突（S）基因突变对诊断的价值。
本研究纳入了 30 只确诊为 FIP 的猫（6 只具有神经症状）和 29 只具有其他导致类似临床症状的疾病的对照猫（11 只具有神经症状）。对所有猫的 CSF 进行 7b-RT-qPCR 检测 FCoV RNA。在 RT-qPCR 阳性的情况下，进一步进行 S-RT-qPCR 以鉴定 S 基因突变。
9 只 FIP 猫（9/30，30%）的 CSF 中检测到 FCoV RNA，但对照猫均为阴性。神经型 FIP 猫 CSF 中 7b-RT-qPCR 的敏感性更高（83.3%；95%置信区间（95%CI）41.8-98.9），而非神经型 FIP 猫为 16.7%（95%CI 6.1-36.5）。很少检测到 S 基因突变。
FCoV RNA 常存在于神经型 FIP 猫的 CSF 中，但在非神经型 FIP 猫中很少见。在该患者群体中，检测 S 基因突变并未提高特异性。未来的研究应进一步探讨更多具有神经型 FIP 的猫。
