Evaluation of some of the liver biochemical parameters in the diagnosis of dairy cows with cholangitis and cholangiohepatitis

Cholangitis and cholangiohepatitis may lead to liver failure in ruminants and biopsy is the most reliable test for diagnosis although it is an invasive and costly procedure. The objective of this study was: 1) to evaluate the liver biochemical parameters in cows with cholangitis and cholangiohepatitis, 2) to compare their sensitivities and specificities with biopsy and 3) to estimate their odds ratios using Bayesian logistic regression. A total of 90 serum and liver samples were collected from two slaughterhouses around Tehran and after pathological examination of the liver sections, a total of 14 samples were diagnosed as cholangitis (n=7), cholangiohepatitis (n=7) and 19 cases were considered as healthy and the remained ones had other pathological injuries. The activities of liver enzymes including AST, ALT, ALP, GGT, PON1, PKC as well as NEFA and BHBA concentrations in the serum samples were measured. Bayesian logistic regression was used to analyze the changes of the studied variables in cows with cholangitis and cholangiohepatitis compared to the healthy cows based on the best model. In the present study, PON1 activity had no change in the cholangitis group but showed an insignificant increase (P>0.05) in cows with cholangiohepatitis compared to the control group. PKC serum activity decreased in both cholangitis and cholangiohepatitis groups, insignificantly (P>0.05). NEFA showed an insignificant increase in cholangitis (P>0.05) and BHB had a significant decrease in cholangiohepatitis group (P