The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of subclinical and clinical primary ketosis in cows on liver functioning, as well as the selection of optimal biochemical parameters set, useful in early diagnostic and evaluation of intensification of liver’s functional disorders accompanying this disease in cows. Blood samples from 121 cows in early lactation were taken, ketone bodies, free fatty acids (FFA), glucose, total bilirubine (TB), total bile acids (TBA), total protein (TP), albumine, serum triglyceride (TG) and cholesterol concentrations were evaluated as well as the FFA/TG and FFA/cholesterol ratio was estimated. The cows were divided into 3 groups: control group (n = 30), subclinical group (n = 32) and clinical ketosis group (n = 59) on the basis of the expression of clinical signs and level of ketonaemia in the blood. FFA/TG ratio, TB and TG seem to be the most reliable diagnostic liver function parameters in cows with primary ketosis.
Cerebrospinal fluid analysis is an important element of neurologic diagnostics, and is relatively safe for the patient. Evaluation of the fluid provides information about the pathology of nervous system, particularly useful are macroscopic and microscopic analyses. As part of a quantitative analysis, cell counts, protein density and infectious disease testing are the most important and potentially sensitive indicators of disease. Despite describing pathological changes, microscopic evaluation rarely allows the diagnosis of a specific disease, therefore the received results should be interpreted to include data from the medical history, as well as from physical and neurological examinations.
The comparative study of the acid-base balance (ABB) parameters has been performed on 20 clinically healthy mature Małopolski horses. An arterial blood sample from the facial artery and a sample of venous blood from the external cervical vein were colected from each animal. In the samples tested, the blood pH, pCO₂, tCO₂, HCO₃-, concentration of Na+, K+, Cl-, and a value of the anion gap were determined. The difference among pCO₂, tCO₂, and HCO₃ - in both samples tested was statistically significant, whereas the pH of the arterial blood and the pH of the venous blood did not differ significantly. The anion gap in both types of blood did not differ significantly. Conclusions: 1) ABB parameters such as pCO₂, HCO₃-, and tCO₂ determined in the arterial and venous blood of the Małopolski horses differ from each other significantly. 2) In spite of the lack of the differences between pH of the arterial and venous blood, the ABB parameters in horses should be determined in the arterial blood, because the comparative study performed proves that the analysis of the ABB parameters determined for the venous blood of a healthy horse may lead to a wrong diagnosis of the compensated respiratory acidosis. 3) The mean value of anion gap in horses aged 8-12 years amounts to 20.9 mmol/l for the arterial blood and 19.93 for the venous blood; the difference between the two values is not statistically significant.
The objective of these studies was to introduce the Stewart approach to analyses of acid-base changes in dogs with the chronic renal failure (CRF). The acid-base status was investigated in 12 healthy dogs and 20 dogs with CRF. In the CRF affected dogs the level of urea and creatinin rose to 350 mg/dl and 394.8 µmol/l respectively. The three independence variables (Pсо₂, SID-strog ion difference, and the Atot-sum of net charges of nonvolatile plasma buffers (albumin + inorganic phosphate) together with the strong ion gap (SIG) were calculated by a method adopted from articles employing Stewart’s approach. The SID averaged 41.85 mEq/l and 48.81 mEq/l in normal and diseased dogs respectively. Nonvolatile plasma buffers (Atot) were higher especially in more severely diseased dogs. The most considerable changes in affected dogs have been observed in SIG where, together with the increasing values of urea, the quantity of SIG successively dropped, attaining negative values (-28.03 mEq/l). The albumin values were significantly associated with the SID values. All affected dogs have metabolic acidosis partly compensated by respiratory alkalosis. As has been clearly observed the estimation of SIG may be used as an accurate marker of CRF in dogs.