Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Plasma beta-hydroxybutyrate levels to detect diabetes in sick cats
By Zeugswetter, Florian et al.·Published in Journal of feline medicine and surgery·2010·Clinic for Small Animals and Infectious Diseases·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Efficacy of plasma beta-hydroxybutyrate concentration as a marker for diabetes mellitus in acutely sick cats.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of acutely sick cats, including 37 with diabetes, were tested to see if measuring a specific substance in their blood (beta-hydroxybutyrate) could help identify diabetes more accurately than traditional urine tests. The results showed that diabetic cats had much higher levels of this substance, making it a reliable way to diagnose diabetes in sick cats. This method could be particularly useful for veterinarians when assessing cats that are unwell and may have undiagnosed diabetes.
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Abstract
Urine ketone measurement is routinely performed in cats with diabetes mellitus to identify impending or established ketoacidosis. Studies using the urinary ketone dipstick test have shown that ketonuria is common in cats with newly diagnosed untreated diabetes mellitus. This test has a low sensitivity as it quantifies the less abundant ketone acetoacetate. The objective of the present study was to determine if ketonaemia is an inherent biochemical finding in untreated feline diabetes mellitus by measuring plasma ss-hydroxybutyrate (ss-OHB) in acutely sick cats. In 122 sick cats (37 diabetic and 85 non-diabetic cats) plasma ss-OHB, glucose, fructosamine, total protein and thyroxine were measured as part of the routine work up. Diabetic cats had significantly elevated ss-OHB values and ss-OHB measurement was a sensitive and specific test to identify diabetes mellitus. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.93. The cut off value with the highest positive likelihood ratio was 0.58 mmol/l. These results suggest that determination of plasma ss-OHB concentration is a useful method to distinguish between diabetic and non-diabetic sick cats.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20117951/