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- Title
Evaluation of Disease Spectrum in Hospitalized Cats with Hyperlipasemia: Pancreatitis Alone Is Rare, Hyperlipasemia without Suspected Pancreatitis Is Common.
- Authors
Hotz, Vanessa; Brugger, Daniel; Kook, Peter Hendrik
- Abstract
Simple Summary: Pancreatitis is a common histological finding in cats, but it is unknown how often cats receive a clinical diagnosis of pancreatitis. Diagnosing pancreatitis in cats is challenging because of nonspecific clinical signs and a lack of diagnostic lipase cutoffs. It is particularly unclear how often clinicopathological evidence of pancreatitis in the presence of extra-pancreatic disease does not lead to a diagnosis of pancreatitis. Thus, we retrospectively evaluated the extent of comorbidities in 563 hospitalized cats with hyperlipasemia. Medical records were searched, and all available diagnoses were recorded and grouped by organ system. Medical findings were compared between cats with pancreatitis alone (PA), pancreatitis with concurrent disease (PD), and no suspected pancreatitis (NP). PA was rare (33 cats (6%)), 159 cats (28%) were in the PD group, and 371 cats (66%) had NP. Clinical, laboratory, and ultrasonographic findings were not different between PA and PD cats. Lipase activities did not differ between the three groups. Common disease categories in PD and NP cats were gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary, renal/urinary, and endocrine, and renal/urinary, gastrointestinal, cardiac, and musculoskeletal, respectively. In summary, cats are rarely hospitalized only because of suspected pancreatitis and the majority of cats have comorbidities, but clinical differences were not found between the PA and PD groups. Future studies are necessary to assess if increased lipase in sick cats with primary non-pancreatic disease stems from secondary pancreatic injury or is due to preexisting chronic pancreatitis. Histological evidence of pancreatitis is commonly found in necropsy studies in cats. A clinical diagnosis of pancreatitis is challenging due to nonspecific clinical signs, a lack of diagnostic lipase cutoffs, and frequent presence of multiple diseases. It is still unknown how often pancreatitis alone is found in sick cats and how often clinicopathological evidence of pancreatitis in sick cats does not lead to a clinical diagnosis of pancreatitis. Our aims were to evaluate the extent of comorbidities in cats with suspected pancreatitis, evaluate how often sick cats with hyperlipasemia are diagnosed only with non-pancreatic diseases, and compare their clinical findings. Medical records of 563 client-owned hospitalized cats with available lipase activity measurement (LIPC Roche) > 30 U/L (RI, 6–26) were searched and medical diagnoses recorded and grouped by organ system. Clinicopathological findings were compared between cats with pancreatitis alone (PA), pancreatitis with concurrent disease (PD), and no suspected pancreatitis (NP). We found that PA was present in 33 (6%) cats, 159 cats (28%) were in the PD group, and 371 cats (66%) had no suspected pancreatitis (NP). Clinical, laboratory, and ultrasonographic findings did not differ between PA and PD cats. Lipase activities did not differ between the three groups. The most common disease categories in PD and NP cats were gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary, renal/urinary, and endocrine, and renal/urinary, gastrointestinal, cardiac, and musculoskeletal, respectively. We conclude that cats are rarely hospitalized because of suspected pancreatitis alone, and PA cats did not differ clinically from PD cats. Hyperlipasemia in sick cats without a diagnosis of pancreatitis may be due to a reactive pancreatopathy or preexisting chronic pancreatitis.
- Subjects
PANCREATITIS; CATS; CHRONIC pancreatitis; SYMPTOMS; DIAGNOSIS
- Publication
Animals (2076-2615), 2024, Vol 14, Issue 10, p1479
- ISSN
2076-2615
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3390/ani14101479