Research Communications of the 27(th) ECVIM-CA Congress: Intercontinental, Saint Julian's, Malta, 14th to 16th September 2017

Disclosures: No disclosures to report. The symmetric Dimethyl-Arginine (SDMA) is produced by protein metabolism and eliminated by renal clearance. In the recent years, it has been used as a marker of kidney disease as it correlates with the glomerular filtration rate. In humans, SDMA is increased in patients with cardiovascular disease and has a negative prognostic value. The aim of the study is to assess the SDMA in dogs with myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) at various disease stages, to evaluate the effect of pulmonary hypertension (PH) and the possible influence of cardiovascular therapies. Dogs visited between May-2014 and September-2016 were retrospectively recruited if they had a diagnosis of MMVD after complete cardiovascular assessment (physical examination, thoracic radiogram, ECG, trans-thoracic echocardiography), CBC, biochemistry profile and a sample of serum stored at À20°C (n = 45). A control group of healthy dogs was also included (n = 8). Dogs with MMVD were divided according to the ACVIM guidelines in stage B1 (n = 9), B2 (N = 11), C+D (N = 17). Dogs in the ACVIM-groups were further subdivided into treated (N = 0, 3, and 14,) and non-treated (N = 9, 8, 3) for groups B1, B2 and C+D, respectively. Dogs were considered affected by PH if they had tricuspid regurgitation with peak velocity >3 m/sec and no right ventricle outflow tract obstruction (N = 11). SDMA was determined by a referring laboratory using a routinely available immunoassay. Selected echocardiographic, CBC, biochemical parameters, and SDMA were compared among ACVIM-groups using Kruskal-Wallis test; the same test was used to assess the combined effect of therapies and ACVIM-group on serum urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine and SDMA. Correlations between SDMA and echocardiographic, CBC, and biochemical variables were assessed using Pearson's test. Man-Whitney test was used to assess differences of SDMA between PH-groups.