Serum proteins and their diagnostic utility in veterinary medicine: a review

The evaluation of serum proteins and their electrophoretic pattern is a well-established laboratory method in the diagnosis of many diseases in humans, which has replaced the biochemical determination of the concentrations of albumin and the ratio of albumin to globulins. The measurement of serum proteins may be an important diagnostic tool for the detection, diagnosis, and monitoring of various diseases and pathological processes. The results of serum protein electrophoresis can be one of the most useful diagnostic aids in a wide spectrum of diseases, including infectious and inflammatory diseases, renal or gastrointestinal disorders, immunodeficiency states, as well as paraproteinaemias caused by lymphoid or plasma cell neoplasia. Although many studies have been carried out to determine the usefulness of the determination of serum proteins and their electrophoretic pattern in various disease conditions and disorders also in animals, serum protein evaluation is still a relatively little-used diagnostic tool in veterinary medicine. In this article, methods of serum protein determination, their diagnostic utility in animal care practice and their different patterns in dysproteinaemias and paraproteinaemias are reviewed.