Clonality testing as complementary tool in the assessment of different patient groups with canine chronic enteropathy.

Differentiation between canine chronic enteropathy (CCE) and intestinal lymphoma is a diagnostic challenge as histopathology might fail to yield unequivocal results. Detection of clonal rearrangements of the T-cell-receptor gamma (TCRG) chain and IG heavy chain (IGH) V-J genes offer a useful solution. In this retrospective study, histopathology samples of 35 CCE patients and 7 healthy Beagle dogs underwent clonality testing. Patients suffered either from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), food responsive diarrhea (FRD) or protein loosing enteropathy secondary to IBD (PLE/IBD). Healthy Beagles served as controls (CO).