Estabelecimento de intervalo de referência para homocisteína em cães e gatos e estudo da influência da obesidade, doença renal e periodontite crônica em cães

Abstract

Homocysteine (HC) is a potential health marker in dogs and cats, but its clinical analysis is still limited. To advance in this field, accessible measurement methods and the establishment of reference intervals (RI) for healthy animals are necessary, in addition to understanding the factors in health and disease that affect their concentration in biological samples. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to investigate how breed, sex, age group and body condition score affect serum total (HCts) values in dogs and cats, as well as evaluate the influence of obesity, chronic periodontitis (CP) and acute kidney injury (AKI) can influence homocysteinemia in dogs. For this, the following were evaluated at a single time: 62 healthy dogs, divided by age group, body condition score (BCS), sex and presence/absence of CP (G1); 23 healthy cats, subdivided by age group and sex (G2); o 24 dogs with AKI alone or associated with chronic kidney disease (G3); and, finally, 24 obese dogs, without underlying endocrine disease (G4). The effects of determinants such as obesity, BW and AKI on HC values were evaluated, as well as the correlation between HC and serum concentrations of creatinine, urea, phosphorus and amylase. The RI, mean values and standard deviations for HCts in healthy dogs and cats, without periodontal disease, were: 6.08 to 20.91 µmol/L (13.25 ± 3.78 µmol/L) for healthy dogs; and 15.89 to 45.58 µmol/L (26.22 ± 7.69 µmol/L) for healthy cats. It was found that dogs with obesity, CP and AKI have higher concentrations of HCts than dogs considered healthy, while physiological variables, such as sex and age group, did not have a significant influence on HCts. The correlation between HCts and creatinine, amylase and phosphorus reinforces its importance in the early diagnosis of AKI. Dogs with HCts above 15 µmol/L have a 5x greater chance of death. These results indicate that HCts is a promising biomarker for the diagnosis, staging, monitoring and prognosis of animals with obesity, AKI and CP.