Description
Rapid Immunochromatographic Assay for the qualitative detection of Serum amyloid A (SAA)
Test applicable to: Horses & Cats
Sample: Whole blood, Plasma or Serum
Acute phase proteins (APP) are used as biomarkers to assess the degree of inflammatory processes or tissue damage. Serum amyloid A (SAA) is a highly sensitive major APP, but it does not allow an aetiological diagnosis.
The serum concentration is very low during homeostasis, but increases dynamically (sometimes up to 1000-fold) within a very short time (approx. 12–24 h) and proportionally to the degree of inflammation or tissue damage. As soon as the inflammatory stimulus / tissue damage subsides due to successful therapy, the SAA concentration decreases within a few hours. In the event of recurrences or secondary complications, it can quickly rise again. SAA can thus be viewed as a “real-time marker”. Depending on the literature, physiological SAA concentrations of less than 10 mg/l are given for cats and 0.5–20 mg/l for horses (Schattauer GmbH 2014; Moritz, Klinische Labordiagnostik in der Tiermedizin).
The higher cut-off (25–30 µg/ml) of the FASTest® SAA compared to the average laboratory reference values was chosen because experience has shown that lower values have no clinical relevance. The FASTest® SAA is therefore suitable as an easy to perform, on site test for the veterinarian to use as an exclusion test for inflammatory processes of any kind.
