Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
A comparison of biochemical and histopathologic staging in cats with chronic kidney disease.
- Journal:
- Veterinary pathology
- Year:
- 2015
- Authors:
- McLeland, S M et al.
- Affiliation:
- Department of Microbiology · United States
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common problem in older cats, often diagnosed when the disease is already advanced and the damage to the kidneys is hard to reverse. In a study involving 46 cats with CKD, researchers looked at how severe the kidney damage was at different stages of the disease. They found that as the disease progressed, the damage to the kidneys became worse, especially in the later stages. The study suggests that it’s important to start treatment earlier, before the kidneys suffer too much irreversible damage. Overall, the findings indicate that earlier intervention could help manage this condition better.
Abstract
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is prevalent in elderly cats. Frequently, a diagnosis is made in later stages of disease, by which time many renal lesions are irreversible. As such, little headway has been made in identifying an etiology and preventing this common disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence and severity of both reversible and irreversible histopathologic changes in the kidneys of cats at each stage of CKD and, in addition, to determine if lesion prevalence and character were different between stages. A total of 46 cats with CKD were classified according to the International Renal Interest Society (IRIS) as stage I (3 cats), stage II (16 cats), stage III (14 cats), and stage IV (13 cats). Eleven young, nonazotemic and 10 geriatric, nonazotemic cats were included as controls. The severity of tubular degeneration, interstitial inflammation, fibrosis, and glomerulosclerosis was significantly greater in later stages of CKD compared with early stages of disease. Proteinuria was associated with increased severity of tubular degeneration, inflammation, fibrosis, tubular epithelial single-cell necrosis, and decreased normal parenchyma. Presence of hyperplastic arteriolosclerosis, fibrointimal hyperplasia, or other vascular lesions were not found to be significantly different between hypertensive and normotensive cats. The greater prevalence and severity of irreversible lesions in stage III and IV CKD implies that therapeutic interventions should be targeted at earlier stages of disease.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25516066/