Introduction
Hematological ratios have been studied as inflammatory state markers in human medicine. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the use of hematological ratios is not reported in canine parvovirosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relation between duration of hospitalization and death with neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR) in this condition.
Methods
Twenty-six dogs of different breeds and up to six months of age were enrolled in this retrospective study. Positive parvovirus antigen test and at least a cell blood count (CBC) on admission were the inclusion criteria. The same treatment protocol was applied in all patients. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U test were performed to analyze hematological ratios according to duration of hospitalization and death status, respectively. Correlation between ratios was assessed using Spearman correlation. Significance was set at 0.05. A receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was built only for significant differences to determine a possible cut-off.
Results
At the time of admission, 10 dogs showed leukopenia. Twenty patients survived to discharge and the median duration of hospitalization was 6 days. Six patients died and none were euthanized. The median duration of hospitalization in non survivors was 2.5 days. No statistically significant differences were observed between duration of hospitalization in both groups and NLR, PLR and MLR (p>0.05); nevertheless, there were statistically significant differences between outcome (survivor vs. non-survivor median value) and NLR (1.86 vs. 0.32; p=0.0067), PLR (145.40 vs. 445.44; p=0.0001) and MLR (0.45 vs. 0.19; p=0.0002). Statistically significant correlation was not observed between the ratios. The ROC curve analysis showed that the best cut-off values to predict the outcome were 0.6 for NLR (sensitivity 66.67%, specificity 70.00%, AUC 58.6%), 155.8 for PLR (sensitivity 100%, specificity 55%, AUC 79.17%) and 0.1 for MLR (sensitivity 33.33%, specificity 95%, AUC 73.33%).
Conclusions
This study showed an association between hematological ratios and outcome; however, they do not appear to be related to duration of hospitalization in canine patients with parvovirus. The most sensitive ratio to determine survival was PLR, with non survivors presenting with a higher ratio.
Disclosures
No disclosures to report.