Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Study to determine clinical decision thresholds in small animal veterinary practice.
- Journal:
- The Veterinary record
- Year:
- 2019
- Authors:
- Guevara, Natalie Toulme et al.
- Affiliation:
- Banfield Pet Hospital · United States
Plain-English summary
This study looked at how veterinarians can decide when to test or treat common health issues in pets. They surveyed veterinarians about six different conditions, including urinary tract infections (UTIs) and gastrointestinal obstructions in dogs, and chronic kidney disease in cats. They found specific percentages that indicate when a test or treatment should be considered for UTIs and gastrointestinal obstructions, but they couldn't determine clear thresholds for the other conditions. The results suggest that there are effective ways to set guidelines for testing and treating these common issues in dogs. Overall, the study successfully identified useful thresholds for UTIs and gastrointestinal obstructions in dogs.
Abstract
This study aimed to determine clinical decision thresholds for six common conditions in small animal veterinary practice. Participants were provided with an online survey. Five questions described scenarios of canine patients with suspected panosteitis, hypothyroidism, urinary tract infection (UTI), mechanical gastrointestinal obstruction (GIO) and idiopathic epilepsy, and one question described a feline patient with suspected chronic kidney disease. A range of probabilities was applied to each scenario. Test and treatment threshold levels were computed for each scenario from 297 usable responses. The test and treatment thresholds were determined for UTI (test=12.8 per cent; 95 per centCI=1.1 to 20.7; treatment=82.0per cent; 95 per centCI=66.3 to 100) and GIO (test=3.2 per cent; 95 per cent CI=0 to 10.4; treatment=87.3 per cent; 95 per centCI=82.6 to 93.5). All other scenarios did not provide data that allowed interpretable test and treatment thresholds. This pilot study has used a new approach in determining clinical thresholds in small animal medicine. Thresholds were successfully determined for two common conditions-canine mechanical GIO and canine UTI. Future research should broaden investigation of methods to determine group clinical threshold levels among veterinarians, which may be used as the basis for clinical decision rules.
Find similar cases for your pet
PetCaseFinder finds other peer-reviewed reports of pets with the same symptoms, plus a plain-English summary of what was tried across them.
Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31160334/