Southfields Veterinary Specialists, Basildon, UK.
The Queen's Veterinary School Hospital, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Vet Rec. 2023 Dec 16;193(12):e3211. doi: 10.1002/vetr.3211. Epub 2023 Jul 28.
C-reactive protein (CRP) is an acute-phase protein produced by the liver during systemic inflammation. In humans, some epilepsies are associated with increased serum CRP (sCRP) concentrations, but this has yet to be proven in veterinary studies. Dogs with structural epilepsy (SE) and normal interictal neurological examination are hard to distinguish from dogs with idiopathic epilepsy (IE) without the use of advanced imaging.
The study included eight dogs with SE and 12 dogs with IE from a referral hospital population. This was a retrospective observational cohort study. The Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the sCRP concentrations within 24 hours of the last epileptic seizure between dogs with SE or IE.
Dogs with SE had higher sCRP concentrations than dogs with IE (8.9 [range <2.2-53.2] mg/L vs. <2.2 [range <2.2-6.9] mg/L; p = 0.043). Five of the eight (62%) dogs with SE had an sCRP concentration above the reference interval, compared with none of the 12 dogs with IE.
The small sample size was the major limitation of this study. Other inflammatory causes were also not exclusively ruled out, although further clinical investigations were not indicated.
This study found that sCRP concentrations were higher in this cohort of dogs with SE than in those with IE. Further studies with larger cohorts of dogs are warranted to validate if sCRP can be used as an additional biomarker for SE.
C 反应蛋白（CRP）是肝脏在全身炎症期间产生的急性期蛋白。在人类中，一些癫痫与血清 CRP（sCRP）浓度升高有关，但这尚未在兽医研究中得到证实。具有结构性癫痫（SE）和正常的发作间期神经检查的狗很难与没有使用先进成像技术的特发性癫痫（IE）的狗区分开来。
该研究纳入了来自转诊医院人群的 8 只 SE 犬和 12 只 IE 犬。这是一项回顾性观察性队列研究。使用曼-惠特尼检验比较 SE 或 IE 犬最后一次癫痫发作后 24 小时内的 sCRP 浓度。
SE 犬的 sCRP 浓度高于 IE 犬（8.9 [范围 <2.2-53.2] mg/L 比 <2.2 [范围 <2.2-6.9] mg/L；p = 0.043）。8 只 SE 犬中有 5 只（62%）的 sCRP 浓度高于参考区间，而 12 只 IE 犬中没有一只。
本研究的主要局限性是样本量小。虽然没有进一步的临床检查，但也不能排除其他炎症原因。
本研究发现，SE 组犬的 sCRP 浓度高于 IE 组犬。需要进一步研究更大的犬科队列，以验证 sCRP 是否可作为 SE 的附加生物标志物。
