General information

The pancreas of dogs secretes a digestive enzyme that is homologous to human pancreatic elastase 1. Canine pancreatic elastase 1 (E1) remains undegraded during intestinal transit. Therefore its faecal concentration reflects pancreatic exocrine function.

To improve the diagnosis of canine pancreatic exocrine insufficiency ScheBo^® • Biotech have developed a species-specific enzyme immunoassay (ELISA) that allows quantification of pancreatic elastase1 in the faeces of dogs. This ELISA is based on canine-specific monoclonal antibodies and allows diagnosis or exclusion of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency in dogs, which is mainly due to pancreatic acinar atrophy, chronic pancreatitis or the disturbed flow of pancreatic juice.

Quantification of human pancreatic elastase 1 in faeces has proven to be a superior non-invasive pancreatic function test for the diagnosis of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency with a sensitivity and specificity of 93%. Its results correlate well with the invasive gold standard secretin-pancreozymin test. The ScheBo^® • Elastase 1 - Canine test promises to deliver similar reliability in measuring canine exocrine function.