Investigations of pancreatitis in cats with Feline infectious peritonitis

Investigations of Pancreatitis in Cats with Feline Infectious Peritonitis This master's thesis aimed to determine whether cats with Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FİP) develop pancreatitis. Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FİP) is a highly contagious and fatal disease caused by mutated Coronaviruses. Due to the difficulties in definitive diagnosis and treatment, it is still among the most dangerous viral feline infections today. The disease is characterized by fluid accumulation in organs such as the abdomen and chest in cats and granulomatous/pyogranulomatous lesions in various organs. Feline Infectious Peritonitis has been found to cause varying degrees of damage in organs such as the brain, lung, liver, kidney, pancreas and eye in cats. However, these studies conducted in cats with FİP are at the morphological and histopathological level in dead animals. Studies using biomarkers to determine organ damage, loss of function or inflammation are quite limited. In this study, nested-PCR test was applied to identify cats with FIP and 20 Feline Corona Virus (FCoV) positive and 10 negative clinically healthy cats were included in the study. It was ensured that the cats included in the study were of similar age, breed and sex. Serum samples were taken from each cat included in the study and biochemical analyses were performed for kidney, liver and pancreas. Cat-specific pancreatic lipase (fPL, Vcheck fPL 2.0, Vcheck V200, USA) and trypsin-like immunoreactivity protein (fTLI, MyBioSourge ELISA kit) analyses were performed on the collected serum samples for pancreas. Clinical signs of renal failure and jaundice were detected in some of the cats with FİP in the study. In biochemical analyses, serum albumin/globulin (ALB/GLOB, p<0.01) and sodium (Na, p<0.01) levels were found to be statistically significantly lower than in the control group, while globulin (GLOB, p<0.01), total protein (TP, p<0.01), alkaline phosphatase (ALP, p<0.01), total bilirubin (T.BIL, p<0.01), phosphorus (P, p<0.001) and feline trypsin-like immunoreactive protein (fTLI, p<0.01) levels were found to be significantly higher than in the control group. Clinical findings and changes in biochemical parameters indicated that some cats developed kidney disease and hepatitis/cholangiohepatitis. Considering the cut-off point, it can be said that fTLI levels increased in some cats with FİP and this may be due to the inflammation of the kidneys, liver, digestive system and pancreas detected in cats with FİP. However, due to the high specificity and sensitivity of the feline pancreatic lipase (fPL) test in cats, increases in fPL levels determined in two cats suggest that FİP may also cause pancreatitis along with cholangitis/cholangiohepatitis in cats. Key Words: Biochemistry, feline infectious peritonitis (FİP), cat, pancreatitis, feline pancreatic lipase (fPL), feline trypsin-like immunoreactive protein (fTLI).