Geoffrey R Browning, Mads Kjelgaard-Hansen, Lauren L Howard, Laura Keener, Mindy LaFarga, Kathryn L Perrin
{"title":"BIOLOGICAL VARIATION OF HEMATOLOGY PARAMETERS AND CLINICAL APPLICATION IN AFRICAN ELEPHANTS (<i>LOXODONTA AFRICANA</i>).","authors":"Geoffrey R Browning, Mads Kjelgaard-Hansen, Lauren L Howard, Laura Keener, Mindy LaFarga, Kathryn L Perrin","doi":"10.1638/2023-0055","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Detailed knowledge of biological variation can facilitate accurate interpretation of clinical pathology parameters. A recent biological variation study in Asian elephants (<i>Elephas maximus</i>) found that hematology parameters had high individuality, which suggests that population-derived reference intervals may be an insensitive diagnostic tool. In elephant medicine, sensitive hematology-related diagnostics are crucial for clinical decision-making, particularly in elephants at risk for elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus hemorrhagic disease (EEHV-HD). The objective of this study was to assess biological variation of hematology parameters in African elephants to determine whether population-derived reference intervals are a sensitive diagnostic tool for interpreting results and to provide a useful alternative. Eight healthy African elephants had blood collected under behavioral training every other week for 8 wk. Complete blood cell count (CBC) analysis was performed in duplicate to assess analytical variation. Previous methods were used to determine between-individual variation, within-individual variation, index of individuality, and reference change values (RCV). This study found that most hematology parameters displayed intermediate-to-high individuality, which suggests that alternatives to population-derived reference intervals are necessary to detect pathologic changes. To test the results of our biological variation data, a case of EEHV-HD was retrospectively evaluated. Individual normal values and calculated RCV detected a clinically significant monocytopenia, leukopenia, and thrombocytopenia associated with EEHV2 viremia. However, none of these parameters fell outside a population-derived reference interval. This study highlights the utility of biological variation in clinical decision-making and demonstrates that individual normal values and RCV may be important diagnostic tools for CBC interpretation in African elephants.</p>","PeriodicalId":17667,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1638/2023-0055","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"VETERINARY SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Detailed knowledge of biological variation can facilitate accurate interpretation of clinical pathology parameters. A recent biological variation study in Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) found that hematology parameters had high individuality, which suggests that population-derived reference intervals may be an insensitive diagnostic tool. In elephant medicine, sensitive hematology-related diagnostics are crucial for clinical decision-making, particularly in elephants at risk for elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus hemorrhagic disease (EEHV-HD). The objective of this study was to assess biological variation of hematology parameters in African elephants to determine whether population-derived reference intervals are a sensitive diagnostic tool for interpreting results and to provide a useful alternative. Eight healthy African elephants had blood collected under behavioral training every other week for 8 wk. Complete blood cell count (CBC) analysis was performed in duplicate to assess analytical variation. Previous methods were used to determine between-individual variation, within-individual variation, index of individuality, and reference change values (RCV). This study found that most hematology parameters displayed intermediate-to-high individuality, which suggests that alternatives to population-derived reference intervals are necessary to detect pathologic changes. To test the results of our biological variation data, a case of EEHV-HD was retrospectively evaluated. Individual normal values and calculated RCV detected a clinically significant monocytopenia, leukopenia, and thrombocytopenia associated with EEHV2 viremia. However, none of these parameters fell outside a population-derived reference interval. This study highlights the utility of biological variation in clinical decision-making and demonstrates that individual normal values and RCV may be important diagnostic tools for CBC interpretation in African elephants.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine (JZWM) is considered one of the major sources of information on the biology and veterinary aspects in the field. It stems from the founding premise of AAZV to share zoo animal medicine experiences. The Journal evolved from the long history of members producing case reports and the increased publication of free-ranging wildlife papers.
The Journal accepts manuscripts of original research findings, case reports in the field of veterinary medicine dealing with captive and free-ranging wild animals, brief communications regarding clinical or research observations that may warrant publication. It also publishes and encourages submission of relevant editorials, reviews, special reports, clinical challenges, abstracts of selected articles and book reviews. The Journal is published quarterly, is peer reviewed, is indexed by the major abstracting services, and is international in scope and distribution.
Areas of interest include clinical medicine, surgery, anatomy, radiology, physiology, reproduction, nutrition, parasitology, microbiology, immunology, pathology (including infectious diseases and clinical pathology), toxicology, pharmacology, and epidemiology.