2015 ACVIM Forum Research Abstract Program

Blood and pleural fluid were prospectively collected from cats presenting with pleural effusion to the emergency rooms of two university teaching hospitals. The cause of the pleural effusion was determined in each case by the attending board-certified cardiologist on the basis of the echocardiogram, history, physical examination and results of any additional diagnostic tests performed. The cardiologist was blinded to all measurements of NT-proBNP. NT-proBNP was measured using both second-generation quantitative plate (BNP-quant) and point-of-care (BNP-POC) versions of a feline-specific ELISA. Continuous data are reported as median [interquartile range] . Groups were compared using Mann-Whitney U tests and Fisher's exact test, as appropriate. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed to derive cut-offs for differentiation of cardiac from non-cardiac cause of pleural effusion. Diagnostic accuracy was assessed by calculation of sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative likelihood ratios.