Avaliação da pressão arterial sistêmica de cães submetidos ao teste de estimulação com hormônio adrenocorticotrófico

Abstract

One of the most frequent findings during the analysis of patients with hypercortisolism (HC) is systemic arterial hypertension (SAH), a condition that can be caused by excess cortisol, which, in addition to increasing the tension of the vasculature, indirectly stimulates the production of catecholamines. In view of the facts, it was hypothesized that, during the performance of the stimulation test with synthetic adrenocorticotropic hormone (TEACTH), used as a diagnostic and monitoring tool for patients with spontaneous hypercortisolism, there may be an adrenergic discharge, which could be harmful to the cardiovascular system, leading to a momentary increase in blood pressure (BP). In this context, through a prospective clinical trial, the present study aimed to measure the systolic blood pressure (SBP) of seven dogs (4 females and 3 males), suspected and/or with pituitary-dependent hypercortisolism (PDH), without preexisting endocrinopathies and cardiomyopathies staged above B1, using a crossover methodology to study the stimulus-effect relationship. In the first moment, the animals were submitted to TEACTH with administration of synthetic ACTH and in a second moment, they were subjected to the simulation of the same test, however using 0.9% saline solution as a placebo substance. No differences were identified in the SBP values in any of the animals evaluated, neither during the TEACTH itself, nor in the simulation using placebo, nor between the SBP values at each time of the pressure measurements between the moments (ACTH versus placebo) or intratest (ACTH and placebo). Thus, through the observations achieved here, it is suggested that TEACHTH is not able to change the blood pressure of dogs submitted to it.