RESULTS: Thirty-eight dogs and fifteen cats euthanized for critical medical conditions were included in the study. Ultrasonographic images of both kidneys were acquired ante mortem at standardized ultrasonographic settings. The echogenicity was quantified by means of Mean Gray Value (MGV) of the renal cortex measured with ImageJ. A complete histopathological examination of both kidneys was performed. Five kidneys were excluded because histopathology revealed neoplastic lesions. Only samples affected by tubular atrophy showed statistically different values in dog, and histopathology explained 13% of the total variance. MGV was not correlated neither to the degeneration nor to the inflammation scores. However, significant differences were identified between mildly and severely degenerated samples. Overall, the classification efficiency of MGV to detect renal lesions was poor with a sensitivity of 39% and a specificity of 86%. In cats, samples affected by both tubular vacuolar degeneration and interstitial nephritis were statistically different and histopathology explained 44% of the total variance. A linear correlation was evident between degeneration and MGV, whereas no correlation with inflammation was found. Statistically significant differences were evident only between normal and severely degenerated samples with a sensitivity of 54.17% and a specificity of 83.3% and MGV resulted scarce to discriminate renal lesions in this species.
CONCLUSIONS: Renal cortical echogenicity shows low relevance in detecting chronic renal disease in dog whereas it results worth to identify severe renal damage in cat.
结果:研究中包括了38只狗和15只因危重医疗条件而被安乐死的猫。在标准超声检查设置下,在死前获取两个肾脏的超声图像。通过用ImageJ测量的肾皮质的平均灰度值(MGV)来定量回声。对两个肾脏进行了完整的组织病理学检查。由于组织病理学显示肿瘤病变,因此排除了五个肾脏。只有受肾小管萎缩影响的样本在狗中显示出统计学上不同的值,组织病理学解释了总方差的13%。MGV与变性或炎症评分均不相关。然而,在轻度和严重退化的样品之间发现了显着差异。总的来说,MGV检测肾脏病变的分类效率较差,敏感性为39%,特异性为86%.在猫中,受肾小管液泡变性和间质性肾炎影响的样本具有统计学差异,组织病理学解释了总方差的44%。变性和MGV之间存在明显的线性相关性,而与炎症没有相关性。仅在正常和严重退化的样品之间存在统计学上的显着差异,敏感性为54.17%,特异性为83.3%,并且MGV导致该物种中很少区分肾脏病变。
结论:肾皮质回声在检测犬的慢性肾脏疾病中显示低相关性,而值得在猫中识别严重的肾脏损害。