Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How cat traits affect heart disease blood tests and test accuracy
By Hanås, Sofia et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary internal medicine·2020·Department of Clinical Sciences·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Effect of feline characteristics on plasma N-terminal-prohormone B-type natriuretic peptide concentration and comparison of a point-of-care test and an ELISA test.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A study found that male cats had higher levels of a specific protein (NT-proBNP) in their blood, which can indicate heart disease, compared to female cats. This was observed in both healthy cats and those with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a common heart condition in cats. The researchers compared two testing methods, an ELISA test and a point-of-care test, and found they were similarly effective at detecting HCM. Both tests were able to identify all cats with HCM that also had left atrial enlargement but missed some without this condition.
People also search for: cat heart disease symptoms · male vs female cat heart problems · NT-proBNP test for cats · hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in cats
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Increased plasma concentration of N-terminal-prohormone B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) can be detected in cats with cardiac disease. Potential effects of feline characteristics on NT-proBNP concentration may influence clinical usefulness. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate potential effects of feline characteristics on NT-proBNP plasma concentration and to compare NT-proBNP plasma concentrations in healthy cats with results in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) cats with or without left atrial enlargement (LAE) using an ELISA and a point-of-care test (POCT), and assess if POCT results reflect ELISA results. ANIMALS: One hundred healthy cats of 3 breeds and 39 HCM cats were included. METHODS: Diseases other than HCM were excluded by physical examination, blood pressure measurement, echocardiography, hematology, and serum biochemistry. RESULTS: Higher NT-proBNP concentrations were found in males than in females in healthy (P = .005) and in HCM cats (P = .0021), but breed had no effect on NT-proBNP concentrations. Using ≥100 pmol/L as a cutoff for abnormal samples, ELISA and POCT had similar sensitivity (SE; 72 and 74%) and specificity (SP; 97 and 98%) for detecting cats with HCM, cats with HCM and LAE (SE, both 100%; SP, 97 versus 98%), and cats with HCM without LAE (SE, both 69%; SP, 97 versus 98%), respectively, when compared to healthy cats. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Breed had no effect on plasma NT-proBNP concentrations, but higher concentrations were found in male than in female cats. The ELISA and POCT had similar SE and SP for detecting HCM. Both tests could identify all HCM cats with LAE but not all HCM cats without LAE.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32200578/