Nephrology/Urology
Comparison of urine proteinuria between free catch and cystocentesis in elderly dogs

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asams.2017.08.005Get rights and content

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Background

Life expectancy of dogs and cats is increasing, and senior pets represent 30 to 40% of patients in veterinary practice. Aging pets and their associated health concerns, together with an increasing demand for higher standard of care by owners, favor routine health screening in this population. The goal of health screening is to detect subclinical abnormalities at a time when therapeutic intervention might have most benefit. Twenty-five percent of middle-aged to old, apparently healthy cats have

Objectives

  • To describe the presence and persistence of borderline or overt renal proteinuria in a population of elderly dogs that were apparently healthy according to their owners.

  • To compare results of urinary protein: creatinine ratio (UPC) between free catch and cystocentesis urine samples.

Procedure

In this prospective study, owners of 100 elderly dogs were asked to collect 2 free catch urine samples. Dogs were considered healthy according to owner's perception and an age chart, which was used to define dogs as senior or geriatric. UPC of urine collected by free catch and cystocentesis were compared. Overt proteinuria and borderline proteinuria were defined as UPC >0.5 and between 0.2 and 0.5, respectively, if examination of sediment did not explain proteinuria. Proteinuria was considered

Results

At baseline, 71 owners succeeded in collecting urine. Eleven percent of dogs had overt proteinuria, 14% were borderline proteinuric, and 75% nonproteinuric. Thirty-seven repeated urine samples, with a median time interval of 31 days, were available. Nineteen percent of dogs had a persistently increased UPC, with persistent overt proteinuria present in 8%. A strong correlation was found between UPC of urine collected by free catch and cystocentesis.

Author Conclusions

The authors' findings emphasized that measurement of proteinuria should be part of routine health screening of the elderly dog. The strong correlation between UPC values of urine collected by free catch or cystocentesis suggests that both collection methods can be appropriate to assess UPC in veterinary practice, but careful interpretation is warranted for values that are close to the decision threshold.

Inclusions

Two figures, 1 table, 42 references.

Editor Annotation

The purpose of this study is listed under objectives. Owners were instructed to collect a free catch urine sample the morning of the exam and 2 weeks later. An ultrasound-guided cystocentesis was performed at baseline. There were 97 urines collected via cystocentesis, and free catch urines were available in 71 dogs. Nineteen percent of the study dogs had persistent proteinuria. The free catch urine samples provided a good alternative evaluation compared to cystocentesis. Clinicians should

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