Salivary alpha‐amylase activity and concentration in horses with acute abdominal disease: Association with outcome

Abstract

Summary Background Salivary biomarkers could be useful to objectively evaluate critical illness and prognosis for survival in horses with acute abdominal disease. Objectives To compare salivary alpha‐amylase (sAA) activity and concentration in healthy horses and horses with acute abdominal disease, and evaluate the association between sAA activity and concentration with disease severity and outcome. Study design A prospective cohort. Methods sAA activity, measured using a colorimetric commercial kit, and concentration, measured using a Time‐resolved immunofluorometric assay, in 25 healthy horses and in 33 horses with acute abdominal disease was compared using an ANOVA. Associations between survival to discharge and sAA activity and concentration and other clinical parameters were examined using univariable logistic regression and Spearman correlation. Results sAA activity and concentration were different between healthy (median = 4.3 [2.6–11.2] IU/L and 58.4 [53.4–80.6] ng/mL, respectively) and diseased (median = 29.8 [14.2–168.9] IU/L and 388.3 [189.1–675.8] ng/mL, respectively) (P<0.001). The sAA activity was higher in non‐survivors (median = 479.0 [78.7–2064.0] IU/L, n = 8) compared to survivors (median = 19.3 [12.1–103.7] IU/L, n = 25, P<0.001) and sAA activity and concentration correlated (P<0.001) moderately with HR (r = 0.66 and r = 0.61, respectively). sAA activity correlated weakly with salivary cortisol (r = 0.45, P<0.001) and systemic inflammatory response syndrome score (r = 0.43, P<0.05), while activity and concentration correlated (P<0.001) moderately with plasma lactate concentration (r = 0.57 and r = 0.60, respectively). The sAA activity was significantly (P = 0.01) associated with increased risk of nonsurvival. Main limitations Pain scores were not recorded. The sample population was small. Conclusions The sAA activity, but not concentration, shows potential as a biomarker of prognosis for survival in horses with acute abdominal disease. The summary is available in Spanish – see Supporting Information

Biomarkers in Stress Related Diseases/Disorders: Diagnostic, Prognostic, and Therapeutic Values

“…Salivary amylase has been used as biomarkers for clinical evaluation of stress in pigs (Escribano et al, 2019), acute abdominal disease in horses (Contreras-Aguilar et al, 2019), neurobehavioral activity (Pajcin et al, 2019) and radiation exposure in humans (Balog et al, 2019).…”

Tandem Mass Tag (TMT) Proteomic Analysis of Saliva in Horses with Acute Abdominal Disease

“…In horses with AAD, various salivary analytes, such as alpha-amylase (sAA), creatine kinase, urea, γ-glutamyl transferase, total bilirubin, total proteins, and phosphorus, showed significant changes compared to healthy horses [ 13 ]. In these cases, sAA activity correlated positively with a pain scale, showing potential as a biomarker of prognosis [ 14 , 15 ]. Therefore, saliva is a specimen that contains analytes that can be potential biomarkers of AAD and can help provide knowledge about the physiopathological mechanisms occurring in this disease.…”

Changes in Saliva Analytes Correlate with Horses’ Behavioural Reactions to An Acute Stressor: A Pilot Study

“…In addition, there is a lack of knowledge about if other salivary analytes that have been reported to change after a stress in other species could vary also in horses, and their possible relationship with behavioural changes. For example, salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), considered an autonomic nervous system (ANS) marker as it is released into oral cavity after activation of beta-adrenergic receptors by intracellular noradrenaline [17], is in high levels in horses with acute abdominal disease (AAD) [18,19] or in sheep after two acute fear-inducing stressors [20]. In addition, other salivary analytes such as total esterase (TEA), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), and lipase increased at different levels in pigs and sheep after acute stress situations [20,21,22], demonstrating a relationship with sAA [20].…”