Objective: To evaluate a human radioimmunoassay (RIA) and equine and high-range porcine (hrp) species-specific ELISAs for the measurement of high serum insulin concentrations in ponies. Samples: Serum samples from 12 healthy nonobese ponies (7 clinically normal and 5 laminitis prone; 13 to 26 years of age; 11 mares and 1 gelding) before and after glucose, insulin, and dexamethasone administration. Procedures: Intra-and interassay repeatability, freeze-thaw stability, dilutional parallelism, and assay agreement were assessed. Results: Assay detection limits were as follows: RIA, < 389 μU/mL; equine ELISA, < 175 μU/mL; and hrp ELISA, 293 to 8,775 μU/mL. Mean ± SD intra- and interassay repeatability were respectively as follows: RIA, 6.5 ± 5.1 % and 74 ± 3.4%; equine ELISA, 10.6 ± 11.0% and 9.0 ± 4.6%; and hrp ELISA, 19.9 ± 172% and 173 ± 16.6%. Freezing and thawing affected measured concentrations. Dilutional parallelism in the RIA was only evident when insulin-depleted equine serum was used as a diluent (percentage recovery, 95.7 ± 274%); in the ELISAs, dilutional parallelism was observed when a zero calibrator was used. Agreement between RIA and equine ELISA results was good for samples containing concentrations < 175 μU of insulin/mL (bias, −18.5 ± 25.5 μU/mL; higher in RIA). At higher concentrations, assay agreement was poor between RIA and equine ELISA results (bias, −185.3 ± 98.7 μU/mL) and between RIA and hrp ELISA results (bias, 25.3 ± 183.0 μU/mL). Conclusions and Clinical Relevance: Agreement among results of the 3 assays was variable, and dilutional parallelism was only evident with the RIA when insulin-depleted equine serum was tested. Caution is recommended when evaluating high insulin concentrations measured with the RIA or ELISAs.

Objective-To compare daily endogenous cortisol production rate and the pharmacokinetics of an IV bolus of hydrocortisone between neonatal foals and adult horses. Animals-10 healthy full-term 2- to 4-day-old foals and 7 healthy adult horses. Procedures-Blood samples were collected from each horse every 15 to 20 minutes for 24 hours for determination of 24-hour mean cortisol concentration. Afterward, dexamethasone (0.08 mg/kg) was administered IV to suppress endogenous cortisol production. Twelve hours afterward, hydrocortisone sodium succinate (1.0 mg/kg) was administered as a rapid IV bolus and serial blood samples were collected to determine hydrocortisone pharmacokinetics. Cortisol concentrations, daily cortisol production rate, and hydrocortisone pharmacokinetics were determined, and results were compared between adult horses and foals. Results-The mean +/- SD 24-hour cortisol concentration was significantly lower in foals (20 +/- 4 ng/mL) than in horses (26 +/- 6 ng/mL), but the daily cortisol production rate was significantly greater in foals (6,710 +/- 320 ng/kg/d) than in horses (2,140 +/- 400 ng/kg/d). For hydrocortisone, foals had a significantly greater volume of distribution at steady state (1.92 +/- 1.11 L/kg) and total body clearance (1.39 +/- 0.108 L/kg/h) and significantly lower peak plasma concentration (1,051 +/- 343 ng/mL) than did horses (0.58 +/- 0.15 L/kg, 0.349 +/- 0.065 L/kg/h, and 8,934 +/- 3,843 ng/mL, respectively). Conclusions and Clinical Relevance-Important differences were detected in cortisol production and metabolism between neonatal foals and adult horses consistent with lower plasma protein binding of cortisol in foals. This decrease may contribute to cortisol insufficiency during prolonged critical illness in neonatal foals.