Ultrasonographic kidney length-to-abdominal aortic diameter for the diagnosis of feline chronic kidney disease: A preliminary study

Vet World Vol.16 May-2023 Article-26

Research Article

Veterinary World, 16(5): 1114-1121

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2023.1114-1121

Kotchapol Jaturanratsamee¹, Nan Choisunirachon¹, Kumpanart Soontornvipart¹, Damri Darawiroj², Naparee Srisowanna³, and Chutimon Thanaboonnipat¹

1. Department of Surgery, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
2. Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
3. Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand.

Background and Aim: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is one of the most important diseases in cats. This study aimed to compare the ultrasonographic kidney length-to-abdominal aortic diameter (K/AO) ratio between healthy and CKD cats and investigate the correlation between K/AO and blood results.

Materials and Methods: Fifteen healthy cats and 15 CKD cats were included in this clinically prospective study. All cats were evaluated for radiographic and ultrasonographic K, radiographic K-to-second lumbar length ratio (K/L2), and K/AO, indirect systolic blood pressure and plasma creatinine (Cr), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and symmetric dimethyl arginine (SDMA).

Results: The radiographic and ultrasonographic kidney lengths of CKD were significantly shorter than those of healthy cats (p < 0.05 and p < 0.05, respectively). The average K/L2 and K/AO were significantly lower in CKD than in healthy cats (p < 0.01 and p < 0.001, respectively). The K/AO had a strong negative correlation with plasma Cr (r = −0.7682, p < 0.0001), BUN (r = −0.6175, p < 0.001), and SDMA (r = −0.589, p < 0.001). However, K/L2 had a moderate negative correlation with plasma Cr (r = −0.5866, p < 0.001), BUN (r = −0.4884, p < 0.01), and SDMA (r = −0.5404, p < 0.01). The optimal cutoff value of K/AO (<10.71) had higher sensitivity and specificity than K/L2 for identifying feline CKD.

Conclusion: Kidney length-to-abdominal aortic diameter could be a better and more promising parameter than the K/L2 ratio for evaluating kidney size in cats with CKD. Keywords: cats, chronic kidney disease, kidney length-to-abdominal aortic diameter, renal length, ultrasonography.

Keywords: cats, chronic kidney disease, kidney length-to-abdominal aortic diameter, renal length, ultrasonography.

How to cite this article: Jaturanratsamee K, Choisunirachon N, Soontornvipart K, Darawiroj D, Srisowanna N, and Thanaboonnipat C (2023) Ultrasonographic kidney length-to-abdominal aortic diameter for diagnosis of feline chronic kidney disease: A preliminary study, Veterinary World, 16(5): 1114-1121.

Received: 23-01-2023 Accepted: 27-04-2023 Published online: 27-05-2023

Corresponding author: E-mail: chutimon.th@chula.ac.th

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2023.1114-1121

Copyright: Jaturanratsamee, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.