Comparative assessment of N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, nitric oxide and echocardiography for diagnosis of dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical usefulness of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide [NT-Pro BNP] and nitric oxide [NO] with echocardiography [gold st and ard test] in diagnosis of canine cardiomyopathy. Out of 374 cases, 82 cases showing cardiovascular abnormalities including 16 cases of cardiomyopathy were further selected for st and ardization of biomarkers. Significant [P<0.01] increase in plasma NT-Pro BNP was found in dogs with cardiomyopathies. The plasma concentration of NO showed non-significant increase in comparison to healthy dogs. The sensitivity of NT-Pro BNP and NO was 72.20% and 62.50%, with specificity 93.90% and 89.40%, respectively when compared with echocardiography. The correlation between echocardiography and NT-Pro BNP was 89.30% with kappa value of 0.675 suggesting substantial agreement between the two tests. The positive and negative predictive value was estimated at 0.765 and 0.925, respectively. It is concluded that NT-Pro BNP and NO may be an alternate diagnostic tool for diagnosis of cardiomyopathy where the facility of echocardiography is not available. Key words Cardiomyopathy, Echocardiography, N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide, Nitric oxide