Five hundred and thirty-four client-owned cats diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and referred for RIT were enrolled in this retrospective study.
Age, breed, sex, body weight, clinical signs, total serum T4 concentration, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) concentration, serum creatinine concentration, urine specific gravity (USG), AUS results, and biopsy or cytology results, or both (if obtained) were collected from the medical records.
The prevalence of concurrent disease identified using AUS in hyperthyroid cats referred for RIT was 36.1%; 22.8% of the cats in the study had renal disease and 2.4% had confirmed neoplasia.
Significant differences in median USG (P value 0.032) and median BUN (P value 0.028) were found between cats that had abnormal kidneys on AUS compared to those with normal-appearing kidneys.
Only 2.2% of the cats were not treated with RIT as a result of changes identified on AUS and subsequently obtained cytology or biopsy results.
The results indicate that pretreatment AUS in hyperthyroid cats referred for RIT is unnecessary in most patients.
Source: Nussbaum, L.K., Scavelli, T.D., Scavelli, D.M., Pintar, J., Henderson, A.K., DeMarco, J.A., Worwag, S., Bastian, R.P. and Kittner, H.S. (2015), Abdominal Ultrasound Examination Findings in 534 Hyperthyroid Cats Referred for Radioiodine Treatment Between 2007–2010. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 29: 1069–1073. doi: 10.1111/jvim.13369
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