SALIVARY BIOMARKERS IN CANINE CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE: A DIAGNOSTIC STUDY

Abstract

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common and clinically significant disease in dogs characterized by progressive and irreversible loss of renal function. Diagnosis of CKD is mainly done on the basis of biomarkers such as blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum creatinine (sCr). Non-invasive diagnostic techniques such as saliva analysis offer a promising alternative to serum-based diagnostics providing an easy-to-collect, stress-free biological sample for clinical evaluations. The aim of this study was to evaluate and correlate the levels of salivary and serum creatinine and urea in dogs diagnosed with chronic kidney disease (CKD) along with diagnostic assessment of saliva. Method: The study was conducted on dogs presented with clinical signs suggestive of CKD at the VCC, College of Veterinary Science, Assam Veterinary and Fishery University, Khanapara, Guwahati, Assam, India. Serum and salivary samples of confirmed 38 CKD cases and 10 healthy control dogs were collected and analysed for creatinine and urea levels. T- test, Pearson’s correlation test and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to compare, correlate and check the diagnostic ability of saliva respectively. Result: The most consistent clinical finding observed was significantly higher concentrations of creatinine and urea in both serum and saliva samples from CKD affected dogs when compared to healthy dogs. A strong positive correlation was observed between the salivary and serum concentrations of creatinine and urea. The ROC analysis showed the cutoff value for salivary creatinine was determined to be 0.89 mg/dL with a sensitivity of 89.47% and a specificity of 100%. The cutoff value for salivary urea was 18.50 mg/dL, with a sensitivity of 97.37% and a specificity of 90%. These findings suggest that salivary biomarkers are nearly as reliable as serum biomarkers in reflecting kidney function and detecting CKD. Conclusion: These findings suggest that salivary biomarkers are equally reliable as serum biomarkers in reflecting kidney function and can be utilised for diagnosis of CKD in dogs.