Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Saliva urea test strips to check kidney health in dogs and cats
By Nickel, Matthew R et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary diagnostic investigation : official publication of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, Inc·2022·SN Biomedical, Canada·View original on PubMed →
PetCaseFinder translated the abstract of this peer-reviewed paper into plain English so pet owners can read it. We do not publish original research — every detail traces back to the citation above. How we work →
Original publication title: A saliva urea test strip for use in feline and canine patients: a pilot study.
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs and cats were tested using a new saliva test strip to check for kidney problems, specifically azotemia, which is a buildup of waste in the blood. The test showed a good correlation between saliva urea levels and blood urea levels, indicating it could be a useful screening tool. While it can't definitively diagnose kidney issues, it can help identify pets that may need further testing. The researchers suggest using this saliva test as a first step before conducting more detailed blood tests if the results are concerning.
People also search for: dog kidney disease test · cat kidney problems symptoms · saliva test for dog kidney function
Abstract
We evaluated a saliva urea test strip (Kidney-Chek; SN Biomedical), as a rapid, noninvasive method to screen for azotemia. The test is a semiquantitative method that assesses 7 levels of saliva urea concentration, and indirectly serum urea, from <3 to >17 mmol/L. Ninety-two dogs (14 azotemic) with serum urea of 1.3-37 mmol/L and 56 cats (16 azotemic) with serum urea of 4.1-89.3 mmol/L were enrolled. A positive correlation was found for saliva urea against serum urea in each species (dogs: r= 0.30,< 0.005; cats: r= 0.50,< 0.001). After turning the semiquantitative data into continuous data by attributing to each level the midpoint of the described range, a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed good performance for detecting serum urea above the upper limit of the laboratory RI (dogs: 2.1-11.1 mmol/L; cats: 5-12.9 mmol/L), with an area under the curve of 0.81 in dogs and 0.83 in cats. We recommend that the test be used as an exclusion test, given that it cannot confidently confirm azotemia with higher test results. Additional investigations are recommended for dogs with a test strip reading of ≥9-11 mmol/L and for cats with a test strip reading of ≥12-14 mmol/L.
Find similar cases for your pet
PetCaseFinder finds other peer-reviewed reports of pets with the same symptoms, plus a plain-English summary of what was tried across them.
Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35412397/