2016 ACVIM Forum Research Abstract Program

Our study suggests that the DOGiBAT is simple scoring tool for classification of bleeding severity in dogs with ITP. A short online training course was shown to improve the accuracy and consistency of DOGiBAT scoring. Adoption of the DOGiBAT scoring system for future clinical trials of canine ITP patients will facilitate more rigorous assessment of treatment-effect based on standardized bleeding outcomes. Aspirin is commonly used in an effort to prevent thrombus formation in dogs. High-dose aspirin (10 mg/kg, PO, q 12 h) reliably inhibits platelet function and thromboxane A 2 (TXA 2 ) synthesis, but can be associated with unacceptable side effects, including inhibition of prostacyclin synthesis, which counteracts the effects of inhibition of TXA 2 . Lower doses of aspirin, in contrast, inhibit platelet function and TXA 2 synthesis, have few side effects, and allow ongoing prostacyclin synthesis. However, low-dose aspirin therapy at standard dosage (0.5-1 mg/kg, PO, q 24 h), does not reliably inhibit platelet function, a phenomenon known as "aspirin resistance". Aspirin-associated platelet dysfunction has been shown to be highly dose-dependent, suggesting that traditional "lowdoses" of aspirin may be under-dosing canine patients. Our study used incremental increases in dosages to determine the dose of aspirin that consistently inhibited platelet function and TXA 2 synthesis without inhibiting prostacyclin synthesis.