Response from Dr. Cridge, et al. to Dr. Steiner, et al. letter to editor regarding JVIM_15039.

Dear Drs Hinchcliff and DiBartola,

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the letter from Drs Steiner and Lidbury regarding our recent publication “Evaluation of SNAP cPL, Spec cPL, VetScan cPL Rapid Test, and Precision PSL Assays for the diagnosis of Clinical Pancreatitis in Dogs.”

We appreciate the input of Drs Steiner and Lidbury. We acknowledge that one limitation of our study was that the VetScan cPL Rapid Test was performed within a controlled laboratory environment, and that, in our article, the performance of the VetScan cPL Rapid Test was not evaluated in field conditions. Evaluation of the VetScan cPL Rapid Test as a bench top test in field conditions would be an excellent area for future study, because currently we do not know whether, as a bench top test within the veterinary practice, the diagnostic accuracy of the VetScan cPL Rapid Test will prove to be better (due to the elimination of variables associated with sample handling and transportation) or worse (due to the loss of commercial laboratory quality control measures) than what was published in the current study.

We also appreciate Drs Steiner and Lidbury sharing some of their unpublished observations regarding their analytical validation study of the VetScan cPL Rapid Test, with the important caveat that such observations have not yet been subjected to the scrutiny of independent peer review.

We hope that our article will lead to future studies and discussion regarding the diagnostic utility of the growing number of canine pancreatic lipase assays.

Sincerely,

Harry Cridge, MVB; Andrew Mackin, BSc, BVMS, MVS, DVSc, FANZCVSc, DACVIM (SAIM); Alyssa Sullivant, DVM, MS, DACVIM (SAIM); John Thomason, DVM, MS, DACVIM (SAIM); Todd Archer, DVM, DACVIM (SAIM); Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS.

Kari Lunsford, DVM, DACVIM (SAIM), Red Bank Veterinary Hospital, Red Bank NJ; and Karen Rosenthal, St. Matthew's University, Grand Cayman, West Indies.

Correspondence

Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine,

Greenwood Village, Colorado.

Email: JVIM@ACVIM.org