A não influência da dieta na pesquisa de sangue oculto fecal, pelo método Guáiaco, em cães com hipercortisolismo

Abstract

Hypercortisolism (HCM) is the most common endocrine disease in dogs, especially in older animals. Clinical signs commonly found in this disease are bulging abdomen, obesity, polyuria, polydipsia and polyphagia, as well as dermatological changes such as thin skin and alopecic. Canine HCM can occur in a spontaneous or iatrogenic way. Spontaneously, in most cases, it can be originated by a pituitary tumor that leads to an increase in the synthesis and release of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), or even, in the remaining cases, it occurs due to the presence of an adrenal cortical tumor that leads to excessive cortisol. In the iatrogenic form, is originated by excessive administration of glucocorticoids (GCs) during pharmacological treatments. There are studies proving that glucocorticoids alone lead to lesions in the gastrointestinal mucosa of dogs, which can manifest in occult bleeding, being potential causes of anemia and difficult to be detect by tutors. Questions about the endogenous effects of cortisol on the gastrointestinal mucosa motivated this study to investigate the presence of occult blood in the feces of dogs with spontaneous hypercortisolism, on a restricted diet of hydrolyzed poultry and swine proteins, using the guaiac-based fecal occult blood test (gTSOF). The final group was consisted of nine dogs, which five were allocated to the hypercortisolemic ACTH-dependent group, and the other four, to the normocortisolemic ACTH-dependent group. For the statistical analyses, the Wilcoxon test was used to compare the modes of the paired samples, and the result has been considered for p values <0.05. After analyzing all dogs together - with and without diet restriction - (p>0.9999), and the groups analyzed separately - with and without diet - (p=0.50), both in the hypercortisolemic group and in the normocortisolemic group, the p-values indicate that dietary restriction proved to be a factor that is not capable of altering the gTSOF results in dogs with hypercortisolism ACTH-dependent, in the hypercortisolemic group and in the normocortisolemic group.