Respiratory disorders in dogs can quickly become critical and are reported to be the second leading cause of cardiac arrest in canines. Therefore, it is necessary to take appropriate measures according to each patient’s condition.

This, however, requires rapid and accurate disease severity assessments. In human medicine, scoring systems that incorporate physical examinations and blood tests results with respiratory function assessments exist, and enable more accurate severity assessments.

In contrast, there are only a few reports on severity assessments that use tests other than respiratory function evaluations in veterinary medicine. Further, these evaluations usability remains unclear.

A research group led by Associate Professor Toshiyuki Tanaka and Dr. Muryo Miki at Osaka Metropolitan University’s Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine explored factors associated with the prognosis of respiratory disorders in dogs. The team examined medical records that included general physical examinations and blood test results of 133 dogs who visited an emergency veterinary hospital with respiratory disorders.

A statistical analysis of 105 survivors and 28 non-survivors revealed significant differences in heart rate, body temperature, white blood count (WBC), glucose, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), lactate, and, most significantly, phosphate. Similar to human prognoses, non-survivor test results that showed elevated levels of phosphate indicated poor outcomes.

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“As far as we know, this study is the first to report that phosphate may be a prognostic indicator in canine respiratory disorders. In addition, the indicators suggested by this study are generally easy to measure and therefore are widely applicable in various facilities,” stated Dr. Miki.

Professor Tanaka added, “Since this survey covers a broad range of diseases classified as respiratory disorders, we believe that it is necessary to conduct surveys targeting individual diseases. We will also continue to investigate the reasons for the increase in phosphate.”

IMAGE CREDIT: Osaka Metropolitan University.