title: Peripheral lymphocyte subsets as a prognostic indicator of mortality and morbidity in healthy dogs.
abstract: To evaluate the relationship among immune status and increased morbidity and mortality, peripheral blood lymphocytes (CD3(+), CD4(+), CD8(+) and CD21(+) cells) from 32 healthy dogs over 8 years of age were analyzed. Twenty-five of the 32 dogs were followed-up for 3 years after the analysis; and 14 dogs were found to be diseased, and nine dogs died. There was no notable difference between the ages of the dogs that died compared with the ones that survived. The relative percentage of CD4(+) and the CD4(+):CD8(+) ratio decreased notably in dogs falling ill compared with healthy dogs. The relative percentage of CD3(+) lymphocytes showed a notable decrease in dogs that died within 3 years in comparison with dogs that survived. In a discriminant analysis of morbidity and mortality, most patients were correctly classified as diseased or not and surviving or dead, respectively. These results indicate that the immunophenotypes of peripheral blood lymphocytes in older dogs offer promise as parameters for evaluating mortality and morbidity.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Veterinary Clinical Oncology, Small Animal Clinical Sciences, Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, Rakuno Gakuen University, 582 Midorimachi, Bunkyodai, Ebetsu, Hokkaido 069-8501, Japan.
authors.forename: Ai
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Watabe
authors.forename: Kiwamu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hanazono
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Komatsu
authors.forename: Dah-Renn
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Yoshifumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Endo
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kadosawa
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D016516:CD4-CD8 Ratio / Q000662:veterinary; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D004285:Dogs / Q000276:immunology*; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D016130:Immunophenotyping / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D016131:Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000166:cytology*; D009017:Morbidity; D009026:Mortality; D011379:Prognosis; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal