Lezing 'Renal tubular disorders and diagnostic work-up of proteinuria in dogs and cats'

Tubular renal disorders in dogs and cats are, in comparison to glomerular renal disorders, less well studied. Both tubular and glomerular diseases can lead to borderline or overt proteinuria. Persistent renal proteinuria can be an early sign of chronic kidney disease, moreover is also a strong predictor for renal outcome, both in veterinary and human medicine.

Borderline proteinuria was shown to be present in a substantial number of healthy appearing older dogs and cats, its clinical importance has been recently studied in several PhD projects at the Small Animal Clinic of Ghent University. Veterinary research has postulated that borderline proteinuria might have a tubular origin, therefore a thorough discussion of tubular disorders in dogs and cats, as well as a recapitulation on the diagnostic work-up of proteinuria in general is of relevance.