Sensitivity of liver parameters in diagnosing liver diseases in rabbits

This retrospective study evaluated the sensitivity and clinical importance of liver parameters (alanine aminotransferase [ALT], alkaline phosphatase [AP], aspartate aminotransferase [AST], glutamate dehydrogenase [GLDH], γ-glutamyltransferase [GGT], glucose, albumin, total protein, bilirubin, and urea) for diagnosing hepatopathies (hepatic lipidosis, inflammation, diseases of the bile duct, neoplasia, cirrhosis, fibrosis, other liver diseases) in rabbits. The laboratory results of 77 rabbits with hepatopathies diagnosed via cytological or histopathological examination were investigated by assessing frequency distributions, associations between liver parameters and different hepatopathies, and intercorrelations between parameters. The most frequent liver disease was hepatic lipidosis (40/77), followed by inflammation (3/77). Aspartate aminotransferase was the parameter most commonly increased (n = 20/77, 70.0% above the reference interval), whereas AP activity never exceeded the reference interval. Significant (p 0.9) were found between AST/ALT, GGT/ALT, GGT/AST, and bilirubin/GGT, and significant but lower correlations (p ≤ 0.001, r = 0.–0.9) were detected for GLDH/ALT, and GLDH/AST. The study showed that AST, GLDH, ALT, and GGT, in contrast to AP, represent suitable parameters for detecting hepatopathies in rabbits.