Chitinase (CHIT1) is a lytic enzyme that in people increases in several inflammatory diseases.
Although preliminary information demonstrated that CHIT1 may be measured with sufficient
precision and accuracy in feline serum and that its activity increases especially in cats with feline
infectious peritonitis, no information on other pre-analytical and analytical sources of variation that
may interfere with the measurement of CHIT1 in feline serum or on the spectrum of diseases on
which CHIT1 may increase are available. Therefore, this study, that will be performed on residual
aliquots of samples collected for diagnostic purposes within the routine activities of our veterinary
hospital, has two main aims: 1) to complete the validation of the method, in order to increase the
inter-assay precision, thus improving the possibility to compare the results obtained in different
working days, to know the best storage condition or the effect of physiological substances that
may induce abnormal serum coloration, and to define the normal CHIT1 activity of cats. 2) to
investigate in which diseases, other than FIP, CHIT1 activity may increase in serum, in order to
draw information about the discriminating power of this biomarker for feline diseases.