title: Assessment of plasma anti-elastin antibodies for use as a diagnostic aid for chronic progressive lymphoedema in Belgian Draught Horses.
abstract: Diagnosis of chronic progressive lymphoedema (CPL) in draught horses, including the Belgian Draught Horse, is mainly based on clinical evaluation of typical lower limb lesions. A deficient perilymphatic elastic support, caused by a pathological elastin degradation in skin and subcutis, has been suggested as a contributing factor for CPL. Elastin degradation products induce the generation of anti-elastin Ab (AEAb), detectable in horse serum by ELISA. For a clinically healthy group of draught horses, a significantly lower average AEAb-level than 3 clinically affected groups (mild, moderate and severe symptoms) was demonstrated previously. To improve CPL-diagnosis, we evaluated the AEAb-ELISA as an in vitro diagnostic aid in individual horses. Test reproducibility was assessed, performing assays independently in 2 laboratories on a total of 345 horses. Possible factors associated with AEAb-levels (age, gender, pregnancy, test lab and date of blood collection) were analyzed using a mixed statistical model. Results were reproducible in both laboratories. AEAb-levels in moderately and severely affected horses were significantly higher than in healthy horses. Nevertheless, this was only demonstrated in barren mares, and, there was a very large overlap between the clinical groups. Consequently, even when a high AEAb cut-off was handled to obtain a reasonable specificity of 90%, a very low sensitivity (21%) of AEAb for CPL-diagnosis was obtained. Results on the present sample demonstrate that the described ELISA procedure is of no use as a diagnostic test for CPL in individual horses.
authors.affiliation: KU Leuven Department of Biosystems, Division of Gene Technology, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: De Keyser
authors.affiliation: Algemeen Medisch Laboratorium, Emiel Vloorsstraat 9, 2020 Hoboken, Belgium.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Berth
authors.affiliation: Algemeen Medisch Laboratorium, Emiel Vloorsstraat 9, 2020 Hoboken, Belgium.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Christensen
authors.affiliation: Algemeen Medisch Laboratorium, Emiel Vloorsstraat 9, 2020 Hoboken, Belgium.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Willaert
authors.affiliation: KU Leuven Department of Biosystems, Division of Gene Technology, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Janssens
authors.affiliation: Ghent University Department of Pathology, Bacteriology and Poultry Diseases, Salisburylaan 133, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ducatelle
authors.affiliation: KU Leuven Department of Biosystems, Division of Gene Technology, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: B M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Goddeeris
authors.affiliation: Algemeen Medisch Laboratorium, Emiel Vloorsstraat 9, 2020 Hoboken, Belgium.
authors.forename: H E V
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: De Cock
authors.affiliation: KU Leuven Department of Biosystems, Division of Gene Technology, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, 3001 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: nadine.buys@biw.kuleuven.be.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Buys
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D000906:Antibodies / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D004549:Elastin / Q000276:immunology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000662:veterinary; D005260:Female; D006734:Horse Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D006736:Horses / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D008209:Lymphedema / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology / Q000662:veterinary*; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D000906:Antibodies; D004549:Elastin
keywords: Anti-elastin Ab; Belgian Draught Horse; Chronic progressive lymphoedema; ELISA