Evaluation of a blood sucrose test for the assessment of gastric ulcers in warmblood horses aimed at field conditions

C.M. Westermann, Linda Van den Wollenberg, H. Everts, J.H. der Kolk, G. Counotte, David van Doorn

    Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstractOther research output

    Abstract

    Gastro-endoscopy is the gold standard for detecting equine gastric ulcers but its use in practice is limited. Recently, sucrose was put forward as convenient marker to assess gastric permeability. Presence of sucrose in the blood after oral application may serve as indicator for gastro-intestinal damage. Sucrose can be measured by GC-MS analyzing technique, but this analytical approach is not cost-effective. Therefore, the use of an enzymatic test kit (SCA20-1KT, Sigma) was studied as an alternative, indirect, cost-effective approach to analyze sucrose, enabling screening of suspected horses in field conditions. To achieve this, 21 horses that were presented as patients in several equine clinics in the Netherlands, were allocated to 6 groups: gastric ulcer score of 0 vs. ≥2 and in both gastric scoring groups 3 levels of oral sucrose application (0.75, 1.0 and 1.25 g/kg body weight). Gastro-endoscopy was preceded by a non-feeding (12h) and a non-drinking period (3h). Blood samples (serum tubes) were taken before (T0) and at 45 min (T45) after sucrose administration. The enzymatic test showed 90% sensitivity and 82% specificity and these values were even lower when only samples at T45 were considered (73 and 60% resp.). Blood sucrose concentrations did not differ statistically between groups with and without gastric ulcers and the enzymatic method showed no correlation with the GC-MS method that was used as a control method and should therefore not be used for diagnosis of equine gastric ulcers. In addition, the GC-MS method was also unable to show a difference between groups.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages136
    Publication statusPublished - 2017

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