The Sick Adult Horse: Renal Clinical Pathologic Testing and Urinalysis.

The research article investigates how azotemia, serum and urine electrolyte concentrations, and urinalysis are used to assess renal function and disease in adult horses. It also highlights the insensitive nature of urea nitrogen and creatinine as indicators for renal function and the interest in finding new biomarkers for blood and urine, with serum symmetric dimethylarginine concentration being the latest commercially available one.

Understanding Renal Function Evaluation

• The article delves into the clinicopathologic evaluation of renal function or how to detect renal disease in adult horses. This process is based mostly on azotemia detection, serum and urine electrolyte concentrations, and urinalysis findings.
• Azotemia refers to an elevation in blood level of urea and other nitrogenous waste compounds that are ordinarily eliminated by the kidneys. Its detection helps in diagnosing kidney malfunction.
• Analysis of serum and urine electrolyte concentrations gives insight into the electrolyte balance of the horses, with imbalances possibly indicating issues in kidney function.
• Similarly, evaluating the urinalysis findings, which include specific gravity, reagent strip analysis, and sediment examination, provides further insight about any abnormalities related to kidney function.

Insensitivity of Traditional Indicators

• Classic indicators of renal function, like increases in serum or plasma urea nitrogen and creatinine concentrations, are highlighted as inefficient. They are inadequate because they are insensitive indicators of decreased glomerular filtration rates – a critical measure of the kidney’s filtering capacity.
• Traditionally, high levels of urea nitrogen and creatinine pointed to kidney issues, but since they do not directly correlate to the kidney’s filtering ability, alternatives are being sought.

Quest for Novel Biomarkers

• Seeing the shortcomings of the traditional indicators, the scientific community has been interested in identifying novel biomarkers for renal function. Biomarkers could provide a more accurate measure of the kidney’s efficiency and potential damage.
• As per the research, the most recent addition to commercially available biomarkers is the serum symmetric dimethylarginine concentration. This new biomarker seems to hold promise for better and more accurate detection of renal function or injury in blood and urine.