Veterinary Clinical Medicine-I (General and Systemic)

ALKALINE PHOSPHATASE (ALP)

• The presence of several isoenzymes and a unique sensitivity to drug and cholestatic induction by de novo synthesis, solubilization from membranes by bile salts and/or elution from membranes, is reported to make ALP a test of relatively low specificity. However, its clinical utility arises from its reported sensitivity in detecting hepatobiliary disease.
• Interpretation of results in "sick" dogs, that do not have canine Cushing's disease, is often confounded by the difficult-to-predict effect of endogenously produced and/or iatrogenically administered corticosteroids.