Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
High urea to creatinine ratio linked to low blood pressure in dogs
By Zygner, Wojciech & Gójska-Zygner, Olga·Published in Acta parasitologica·2014·Department of Preclinical Sciences·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Increased serum urea to creatinine ratio and its negative correlation with arterial pressure in canine babesiosis.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs infected with Babesia canis showed an increase in their serum urea to creatinine ratio, which can indicate kidney issues. This increase was linked to lower blood pressure in some cases, but the connection wasn't strong enough to explain everything. The study involved comparing dogs with and without kidney problems, and while the sick dogs had higher ratios, other factors like heart injury might also play a role. More research is needed to fully understand why this happens in dogs with babesiosis.
People also search for: dog Babesia infection symptoms · high urea creatinine ratio in dogs · dog kidney problems treatment
Abstract
The increase of the serum urea to creatinine ratio (UCR) was observed in dogs infected with Babesia canis. Previous studies have suggested that decrease of blood pressure can be one of the reasons for this phenomenon. In this work statistically significant increase of the UCR was observed in dogs with babesiosis. Comparison of the UCR between 23 azotaemic dogs and 25 non-azotaemic dogs infected with Babesia canis showed statistically significantly higher mean of the UCR in azotaemic dogs. Correlations between UCR and systolic, diastolic and mean arterial pressure (SAP, DAP and MAP) in 48 dogs infected with B. canis were negative (UCR and SAP: r = -0.3909; UCR and DAP: r = -0.3182; UCR and MAP: r = -0.3682) and statistically significant (p < 0.05). This result may indicate contribution of hypotension in the increase of the UCR in canine babesiosis. However, the correlations were not high, and there was no statistically significant correlation between UCR and arterial pressures in azotaemic dogs. Thus, it seems that decrease of blood pressure in dogs with babesiosis explains only partially the cause of increased UCR in infected dogs. The other authors suggested hyperureagenesis and myocardial injury as a potential reason for the increased UCR in canine babesiosis. Thus, further studies are needed to determine causes of increased UCR in dogs with babesiosis, especially on the connection between UCR changes and the concentrations of plasma cardiac troponins and ammonia, and the occurrence of occult blood on fecal examination.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25119372/