Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
D-dimer levels in healthy and sick cats with blood clotting problems
By Tholen, Inger et al.·Published in Journal of feline medicine and surgery·2009·Clinic of Small Animals, Germany·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Concentration of D-dimers in healthy cats and sick cats with and without disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC).
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A study looked at D-dimer levels in 48 sick cats and 20 healthy cats to see if this test could help diagnose a serious condition called disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). The test was positive in 8 out of 12 cats with DIC and in 16 out of 36 sick cats without DIC, while all healthy cats had negative results. Although the test showed a high ability to identify healthy cats, it was only somewhat effective in distinguishing between sick cats with and without DIC. Overall, the D-dimer test is not very reliable for diagnosing DIC in cats.
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Abstract
The objective of this prospective study was to measure concentrations of D-dimers in 48 cats with various diseases and in 20 healthy cats to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity for D-dimers to diagnose disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). The cats were classified as having DIC if an underlying disease and at least three of the following criteria were present: thrombocytopenia, prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time, prothrombin time or thrombin time, schistocytes and/or a reduced antithrombin activity. D-dimer concentrations were measured using a semi-quantitative latex agglutination (LA) test (Accuclot D-Dimer, Sigma Diagnostics). The D-dimer test was positive for 8/12 cats with DIC and for 16/36 sick cats without DIC. D-dimers were negative for all healthy control cats. The comparison of the sick cats with DIC and those without DIC revealed a specificity and sensitivity of the D-dimer test of 56% and 67%; a comparison of the results for healthy cats and cats with DIC revealed a specificity and sensitivity of 100% and 67%, respectively. The D-dimer LA test is only of limited value for the diagnosis of DIC in cats.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19539510/