Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Can blood test for troponin I tell if a cat's breathing trouble is
By Connolly, David J et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary cardiology : the official journal of the European Society of Veterinary Cardiology·2009·Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, United Kingdom·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Assessment of the diagnostic accuracy of circulating cardiac troponin I concentration to distinguish between cats with cardiac and non-cardiac causes of respiratory distress.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of cats with breathing problems was tested to see if measuring a specific protein (cardiac troponin I) could help tell if their issues were due to heart failure or other causes. The cats with heart failure had higher levels of this protein compared to those with non-heart-related breathing issues. While the test showed some promise, there was a lot of overlap in protein levels between the two groups, meaning it shouldn't be the only test used. Vets recommend using this test alongside other methods like ultrasounds and X-rays for a more accurate diagnosis.
People also search for: cat breathing problems · heart failure in cats · cardiac troponin test for cats
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To determine if serum cardiac troponin I (cTnI) concentrations can distinguish cardiac from non-cardiac causes of respiratory distress (RD) in cats. ANIMALS, MATERIALS AND METHODS: 53 cats. cTnI concentrations were measured in 30 cats with non-cardiac respiratory distress (RD-NC) and compared to 23 cats with RD due to congestive heart failure (RD+CHF). RESULTS: The RD+CHF group had higher median cTnI concentration (0.94 ng/ml interquartile range IQR 0.54-4.00, range < 0.20-90.14) than the RD-NC group (< 0.2 ng/ml IQR < 0.2-0.33, range < 0.20-41.1, p<0.001). The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.842 (95% CI 0.728-0.955) for the receiver operator curve (ROC) analysis of the accuracy of cTnI concentrations to discriminate RD+CHF from RD-NC cats. A cut-off of > or = 0.81 ng/ml discriminated RD+CHF from RD-NC cats with a sensitivity and specificity of 65.2% and 90.0% respectively. However considerable overlap in cTnI concentrations between the 2 groups was identified. CONCLUSIONS: Serum cTnI concentrations were different in RD+CHF compared to RD-NC cats. However the overlap in cTnI concentrations between the 2 groups reduced the clinical efficacy of the assay which therefore should not be used as a stand-alone test but in combination with other diagnostics such as echocardiography and radiography.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19879824/