Quality of Life for Patient and Caregiver
The clinical course of IBD in dogs is characterized by spontaneous exacerbations and remissions, which makes the assessment of disease burden difficult. Therefore, a scoring system for the evaluation of the canine IBD activity (CIBDAI) was developed (Jergens et al.
2003; see Table 19.2). This scoring system was compared to serum concentrations of C-reactive protein (CRP), haptoglobin (HAP), alpha-acid glycoprotein (AGP), and serum amyloid A (SAA), as well as histology scores derived from endoscopic biopsy specimens. Among IBD dogs, the CIBDAI showed good correlation to both histology and HAP scores, but CRP also was a strong co-correlate of disease activity. The IBD dogs showed significantly decreased CIBDAI and CRP values but significantly increased HAP concentrations after medical therapy compared to pretreatment values. Therefore, the CIBDAI is a reliable measure of inflammatory activity in canine IBD and the effect of therapy. Three other factors (albumin levels, ascitesTable 19.2 Canine inflammatory bowel disease activity index (CIBDAI).
| Clinical symptoms assessed | Score |
| Attitude/activity | 0-3 |
| Appetite | 0-3 |
| Vomiting | 0-3 |
| Stool consistency | 0-3 |
| Stool frequency | 0-3 |
| Weight loss | 0-3 |
After summation of the scores, the total composite score is assessed as clinically insignificant disease (score 0-3), mild (score 4-5), moderate (score 6-8), or severe IBD (score 9 or greater).
Source: Jergens et al. 2003. Reproduced with permission of American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine.
and peripheral edema, and pruritus) were added to the CIBDAI to get the CCECAI (canine chronic enteropathy clinical activity index; Allenspach et al. 2007), another activity index for the disease. Both indices are quite simple to determine and are very helpful tools to evaluate clinical severity of the disease, progression or treatment success, and therefore also the quality of life.