Nutritional and laboratory assessment as predictors of hospitalization time, severity of the underlying disease and mortality in dogs

• Autor(a) principal: Fabretti, Andrei Kelliton
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Siqueira, Raquel Carolina Simões, Gomes , Lucas Alécio, Venturini, Danielle, Pereira, Patrícia Mendes
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Semina. Ciências Agrárias (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://ojs.uel.br/revistas/uel/index.php/semagrarias/article/view/47633
• topic: Dogs; C-Reactive Protein/albumin; Systemic Diseases; Prognosis.; Perros; Enfermedades Sistémicas; Pronóstio; Cães; Proteína-C-Reativa/albumina; Doenças SistêmicasPrognóstico.

: In medicine, prognosis is defined as a prediction based on a patient's diagnosis and therapeutic possibilities, including the duration and severity of illness, and death rate. The prognostic indices used in human medicine, or even the few standardized indices for veterinary medicine, are not widespread or routinely applied in small animal clinics. Thus, this study aimed to identify commonly used variables in routine clinical practice that may be useful as prognostic markers, correlating specifically with length of stay (LOS), disease severity, and mortality. This study included 246 routine dogs from a teaching veterinary hospital in southern Brazil who underwent analyses for nutritional status (NS) (by anamnesis, physical, and laboratory examinations), hematological examinations, and several serum biochemical parameters. Frequencies, means and standard deviations of the variables, correlation analyses and comparative analyses (Kruskal-Wallis at α = 5%) were calculated. The following relevant markers of disease severity in dogs were considered: presence of malnutrition, including history of hyporexia, anorexia, body condition score (BCS) ≤3 and muscle mass score (MMS≤2); low values of transferrin (TF), total iron binding capacity (TIBC) and anemia; high values of transferrin saturation (TS), lactate and C-Reactive Protein (CRP)/albumin ratio. In animals without systemic diseases or with mild-to-moderate systemic diseases, low albumin values, CRP/albumin ratio, and hyporexia were indicators of a long LOS. In animals with critical systemic diseases, low body mass index (BMI) and hemoglobin (HGB) values were indicators of a short LOS (secondary to high mortality). Mortality indicators in sick dogs included hypoalbuminemia and high urea concentration. In conclusion, the observation of these alterations, especially when they occur simultaneously, helps in determining the prognosis in dogs from a hospital population in an objective, practical, and accessible manner.