title: Practical interpretation and application of exocrine pancreatic testing in small animals.
abstract: The pancreas remains a difficult organ to evaluate using laboratory methods alone. No single laboratory test is diagnostic of pancreatitis (chronic or acute) without other diagnostic modalities concurring with the diagnosis or ruling out other diseases. The diagnosis of pancreatitis is particularly difficult in cats, and pancreatitis often occurs with other diseases. The use of pancreatic cytology may be useful in diagnosing both inflammation and neoplasia. Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) can be relatively easily diagnosed when clinically manifested by the measurement of trypsinlike immunoreactivity. Diagnosis is more difficult when EPI is subclinical.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Melbourne, 250 Princes Highway, Werribee, Victoria 3030, Australia. Electronic address: cmans@unimelb.edu.au.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mansfield
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D010179:Pancreas / Q000201:enzymology*; D010182:Pancreatic Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000662:veterinary*; D012016:Reference Values; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
keywords: Pancreatic elastase (PE-1); SNAP(®)-cPL™; Specific canine pancreatic lipase (spec-cPL); Trypsinlike immunoreactivity (TLI)