Marcadores bioquímicos como preditores de sepse e sobrevivência em potros nascidos de éguas com placentite

Abstract

Neonatal sepsis is a common consequence of placentitis and has been considering the leading cause of neonatal death during the first week post-foaling. Assuming clinical and economic importance worldwide due to treatment costs and low survival rate. Considering the roll of early diagnosis of septicemia in neonatal foals and the establishing a prognosis for these foals, it is necessary to investigate markers that presenting high sensitivity that can be easily assessed in clinical practice. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the usefulness of blood markers as early predictors of sepsis and as predictors of non-survival in neonatal foals. Thirty-five foals were used, divided into three groups: seven healthy foals served as a control group, and 28 foals born from mares with experimentally induced ascending placentitis were divided into two groups according to sepsis score in: non-septic foals (n = 19) and septic foals (n = 9), and according to outcome in: survivors (n = 19) and non-survivors (n = 9). In the first study, it was found that foals with neonatal sepsis showed marked changes in the energy metabolism, with hypoglycemia at birth and reduced GGT enzyme activity, and increased lactate and urea levels, besides presenting high concentrations of fibrinogen, AFP and SAA. Cholesterol and lactate have been shown to be good markers for detecting sepsis within the first 48 hours of life. In the second study, we evaluated the relationship among biochemical and inflammatory markers with nonsurviving, and their usefulness as death predictors. Measurement of glucose, triglyceride and GGT levels at birth have been shown to be good markers for predicting non-survival, with high sensitivity and specificity, and can be used to assist in making decisions about the chances of survival of foals in clinical routine. The results showed that septic and non-surviving foals presented several metabolic and inflammatory responses, so peripheral blood markers such as cholesterol and lactate are suitable markers for early detection of sepsis and glucose, triglycerides and GGT are useful in clinical practice for predicting non-survival in foals.