Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How blood clotting tests show risk in dogs with Cushing's disease
By Vargas-Mora, Silvia E et al.·Published in Topics in companion animal medicine·2021·Department of Veterinary Clinics, Brazil·View original on PubMed →
PetCaseFinder translated the abstract of this peer-reviewed paper into plain English so pet owners can read it. We do not publish original research — every detail traces back to the citation above. How we work →
Original publication title: Thrombin Generation Assay and Hemostatic Profile for Elucidating Hypercoagulability in Endogenous Canine Hyperadrenocorticism.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs with Cushing's disease (hyperadrenocorticism) showed signs of increased blood clotting, which can lead to serious health issues. Researchers tested a method called the thrombin generation assay (TGA) to see if it could help identify this hypercoagulability. They found that dogs with Cushing's had higher levels of certain clotting factors and lower activity in tests that measure blood clotting time. While the TGA was not effective at lower concentrations, the study suggests that measuring fibrinogen and antithrombin levels could help veterinarians assess clotting risks in these dogs.
People also search for: dog Cushing's disease symptoms · hypercoagulability in dogs · Cushing's disease blood tests · dog blood clotting treatment
Abstract
Canine hyperadrenocorticism is a common endocrine disorder caused by chronic secretion of glucocorticoid, often associated with hypercoagulability and secondary thrombosis. The thrombin generation assay (TGA) evaluates hemostasis globally by measuring endogenous thrombin potential. We aimed to determine whether TGA is suitable for assessing hypercoagulability in dogs with endogenous hyperadrenocorticism (HAC), and to correlate TGA with coagulation markers including fibrinogen, antithrombin (AT), D-dimer, prothrombin time (PT) and activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), and with routine laboratory tests for elucidating prothrombotic mechanisms and evaluating their utility as hypercoagulability screening tests. Thrombin generation performed with high activator concentration showed significantly higher endogenous thrombin potential (ETP) (P = .0239) and peak thrombin (P = .0281) in Cushing patients. Fibrinogen (P = <.0001) and AT (P = .0444) activities were significantly higher in the HAC group, while those of PT (P = .0046) and aPTT (P = .0002) were lower. Basal cortisol levels correlated positively with fibrinogen (r = 0.4503; P = .0355) and negatively with AT activity (r = -0.4580; P = .0280). Fibrinogen and hematocrit values were inversely correlated (r = -0.4853; P = .0076). Our study confirmed the presence of higher thrombin generation in dogs with HAC. However, TGA performed with lower activator concentrations was unsuitable for detecting hypercoagulability. Higher AT and fibrinogen levels and lower aPTT activity were identified in dogs with HAC relative to controls suggesting a potential role for the combined use of these assays when assessing hypercoagulability in canine hyperadrenocorticism.
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 on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34509666/