Vet World   Vol.13   May-2020  Article-6

Accuracy of methods for diagnosing heart diseases in cats

Background and Aim: This study aimed to determine the accuracy of the current methods for diagnosing heart diseases in cats.

Materials and Methods: The data of 58 cats were retrospectively retrieved. Cats were classified into two groups: Thirty-eight cats with heart diseases and 20 healthy cats. Echocardiography was the gold standard method for diagnosing heart disease. The results of seven methods were retrieved: (1) Vertebral heart score (VHS) with a cutoff value >8, (2) VHS with a cutoff value >8.5, (3) multiplication of cardiac length (L) and width (W), (4) multiplication of cardiac L and W divided by the L of the fourth sternal thoracic bone, (5) N-terminal Pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) point-of-care test, (6) subjective ultrasonographic assessment of the left atrial size, and (7) subjective radiographic assessment of the left atrial size. Cross-tabulation was used to calculate the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value for each test. This study found that using the NT-proBNP point-of-care test was optimal in the diagnosis of cats with heart disease.

Results: The subjective ultrasonographic assessment of the left atrial size was good for diagnosing hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure.

Conclusion: This study showed that the more tests used, the higher the reliability of the diagnosis. Keywords: cardiac disease diagnosis, N-terminal Pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, thoracic radiography, ultrasonography.

Keywords: cardiac disease diagnosis, N-terminal Pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, thoracic radiography, ultrasonography.

How to cite this article: Laudhittirut T, Rujivipat N, Saringkarisate K, Soponpattana P, Tunwichai T, Surachetpong SD (2020) Accuracy of methods for diagnosing heart diseases in cats, Veterinary World, 13(5): 872-878.

Received: 14-11-2019  Accepted: 07-04-2020     Published online: 09-05-2020

Corresponding author: Sirilak Disatian Surachetpong   E-mail: sirilakd27@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2020.872-878

Copyright: Laudhittirut, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.