Background: Pig-tailed macaques (PTMs) are commonly used as preclinical models to assess antiretroviral drugs for HIV prevention research. Drug toxicities and disease pathologies are often preceded by changes in blood hematology. To better assess the safety profile of pharmaceuticals, we defined normal ranges of hematological values in PTMs using an Isolation Forest (iForest) algorithm.
Methods: Eighteen female PTMs were evaluated. Blood was collected 1-24 times per animal for a total of 159 samples. Complete blood counts were performed, and iForest was used to analyze the hematology data to detect outliers.
Results: Median, IQR, and ranges were calculated for 13 hematology parameters. From all samples, 22 outliers were detected. These outliers were excluded from the reference index.
Conclusions: Using iForest, we defined a normal range for hematology parameters in female PTMs. This reference index can be a valuable tool for future studies evaluating drug toxicities in PTMs.
Keywords: complete blood counts; drug toxicities; non‐human primates.
Published 2024. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. Journal of Medical Primatology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.