Causes of thrombocytopenia in dogs in the United Kingdom: A retrospective study of 762 cases.

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Ltd Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 101678837 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 2053-1095 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 20531095 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Vet Med Sci Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: [Oxford] : John Wiley & Sons Ltd., [2015]-

Thrombocytopenia*/epidemiology ; Thrombocytopenia*/veterinary ; Neoplasms*/veterinary ; Communicable Diseases*/complications ; Communicable Diseases*/veterinary; Dogs ; Animals ; Retrospective Studies ; United Kingdom/epidemiology

Background: Thrombocytopenia is a common laboratory abnormality in dogs, and numerous diseases have been associated with its development. Estimates for the sensitivity and specificity of the degree of reduction of platelet concentration for the diagnosis of primary immune-mediated thrombocytopenia (pITP) have not been reported.
Objectives: To report the prevalence of different causes of thrombocytopenia in dogs in the United Kingdom and to investigate the utility of platelet concentration to differentiate causes of thrombocytopenia.
Methods: Medical records of 762 dogs with thrombocytopenia presented to seven referral hospitals from January 2017 to December 2018 were retrospectively reviewed. Cases were assigned into the following categories: pITP, infectious diseases, neoplasia, inflammatory/other immune-mediated disorders and miscellaneous causes. The prevalence of the different categories was estimated, and platelet concentrations were compared. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to investigate the utility of platelet concentration to differentiate between causes of thrombocytopenia.
Results: The most common disease category associated with thrombocytopenia was neoplasia (27.3%), followed by miscellaneous causes (26.9%), pITP (18.8%), inflammatory/immune-mediated disorders (14.4%) and infectious diseases (12.6%). Dogs with pITP had significantly lower platelet concentrations (median 8 × 10 ⁹ /L, range: 0-70 × 10 ⁹ /L) than dogs in the other four categories. Platelet concentration was useful for distinguishing pITP from other causes of thrombocytopenia (area under ROC curve = 0.89, 95% confidence interval 0.87, 0.92), with a platelet concentration ≤12 × 10 ⁹ /L being 60% sensitive and 90% specific.
Conclusions: Severe thrombocytopenia was highly specific for a diagnosis of pITP, which was more prevalent in this UK population of thrombocytopenic dogs compared with previous epidemiological studies. Conversely, the proportion of dogs with infectious diseases was lower than in previous reports from other locations.
(© 2023 The Authors. Veterinary Medicine and Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2009 Oct 15;235(8):960-6. (PMID: 19827982)
Vet Rec. 1994 Sep 17;135(12):281-3. (PMID: 7817507)
Vet Clin Pathol. 1991;20(2):38-43. (PMID: 12673543)
Vet Parasitol. 2013 Nov 15;198(1-2):18-23. (PMID: 24055106)
J Thromb Haemost. 2019 May;17(5):787-794. (PMID: 30801909)
J Small Anim Pract. 2008 Oct;49(10):518-24. (PMID: 18793252)
J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2001 Dec 1;219(11):1552-6. (PMID: 11759992)
Vet Parasitol. 2009 Aug 26;163(4):298-305. (PMID: 19403239)
J Am Vet Med Assoc. 1984 Sep 15;185(6):660-3. (PMID: 6541641)
PLoS One. 2014 Mar 04;9(3):e90501. (PMID: 24594665)
Vet Rec. 2021 Apr;188(8):e12. (PMID: 33818768)
Vet Clin North Am Small Anim Pract. 1988 Jan;18(1):35-49. (PMID: 3282383)
Front Vet Sci. 2020 Feb 04;7:20. (PMID: 32118054)
J Am Vet Med Assoc. 1994 Sep 15;205(6):838-41. (PMID: 7829376)
Vet Med Sci. 2023 Jul;9(4):1495-1507. (PMID: 37218364)
Vet Rec. 2009 May 23;164(21):647-51. (PMID: 19465753)
J Am Anim Hosp Assoc. 2008 Sep-Oct;44(5):250-7. (PMID: 18762561)
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Sep 29;15(10):. (PMID: 30274268)
Vet J. 2014 Sep;201(3):406-11. (PMID: 25082397)
J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2011 Feb 1;238(3):346-52. (PMID: 21281218)
Vet Rec. 2019 Apr 6;184(14):441. (PMID: 30665949)
J Small Anim Pract. 2018 Sep;59(9):531-538. (PMID: 29355998)
Vet Clin Pathol. 2015 Sep;44(3):355-68. (PMID: 26302235)
J Vet Intern Med. 1996 Jul-Aug;10(4):207-18. (PMID: 8819045)
N Engl J Med. 2002 Mar 28;346(13):995-1008. (PMID: 11919310)
J Vet Intern Med. 2014 Sep-Oct;28(5):1575-9. (PMID: 25056453)
J Small Anim Pract. 2013 Aug;54(8):425-7. (PMID: 23718904)

Keywords: United Kingdom; canine; platelets; prevalence; thrombocytopenia

Date Created: 20230523 Date Completed: 20230721 Latest Revision: 20230723

20231215

PMC10357222

10.1002/vms3.1091

37218364