Diagnostic and prognostic value of serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and LDH isoenzymes in canine lymphoma.

Abstract

In humans, serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) is used as a prognostic indicator in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). In particular, elevated values of LDH (Schneider et al., 1980) and increases of the isoenzymes LDH2 and LDH3 (Dumontet et al., 1999) have been correlated with shortened survival times. In another study, the same isoenzymes were elevated in patients affected by latent NHL (Rotemberg et al., 1984). However, in veterinary medicine only a very limited amount of information is available regarding the pattern of LDH isoenzymes related to lymphoma. An increase in the value of serum LDH has been reported in dogs affected by leukaemia (Leifer and Matus, 1986) and in cats with large granular lymphoproliferative disorder (Buracco et al., 1992). In canine lymphomas, however, similar correlations between high concentrations of serum LDH and clinical staging or survival times have not been found (Greenlee et al., 1990). Bezzecchi and colleagues (1979) found that an increase in LDH3 was a possible indicator of latent disease. In an earlier study by our group, we showed that LDH2 and LDH3 were increased in dogs with lymphoma (Abate et al., 1997). The present report evaluates the clinical utility of monitoring changes in total and isoenzymatic patterns of LDH at diagnosis and during the course of therapy.