Measurement of Prothrombin Time, Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time, Fibrinogen Concentration, Platelets count and indices in healthy police dogs in Sudan

Abstract

The study aimed to determine the normal values of Prothrombin Time (PT) Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time (APTT), Fibrinogen Concentration (FIB), platelets count (PLT), mean platelets volume (MPV), plateletcrit (PCT) and platelet distribution width (PDW) for healthy police dogs in Sudan and to assess the effect of breed and sex on these parameters. Forty six dogs were used; 20 Labrador Retriever and 26 German Shepherd dogs comprising 21 males and 25 females, 20-83 months old. Blood samples were collected from the cephalic vein. The PT, APTT and FIB were measured in paired citrated plasma by a semi automatic BCA-2000-LED-light coagulometer using Spinreac reagents kits for human medicine. Platelets parameters were determined in whole blood, containing (EDTA- K3), using BK6100 Auto Hematology Analyzer. Differences in mean values between groups were detected by student's t-test and Spearman correlation was used to determine correlations between platelet count and platelets indices using statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 16 for Statistical analysis. The overall mean values for PT, APTT and FIB were 7.35±0.91second, 15.12±1.32 second and 341.54±55.16 mg/dl respectively. German Shepherd dogs showed significantly (P≤0.05) higher values than Labrador Retriever dogs for PT (7.58±1.01 vs. 7.06±0.67 seconds), and APTT (15.28 ±1.58 vs. 14.9±0.85 seconds), respectively. Males showed significantly (P≤0.05) higher values for FIB than the females (346.30±38.75 vs. 337.73± 65.99 mg/dl). The overall mean values for PLT, MPV, PCT and PDW were: 172.022±52.72 ×109/L, 10.2±0.76 FL, 0.173±0.057 L/L and 11.16±0.31% respectively. German Shepherd dogs showed significantly (P≤0.05) higher values for MPV than Labrador Retriever dogs (10.43±0.71vs. 9.9±0.73 FL),German Shepherd females showed significantly (P≤0.05) higher values for MPV than German Shepherd males dogs (10.72±0.69 vs.10.13±0.62 FL), and also Labrador Retriever males showed significantly (P≤0.05) higher values than Labrador Retriever females dogs for MPV(10.41±0.71 vs. 9.55±0.53 FL) and PDW(11.51±0.43vs. 11.07±0.2%), respectively. Highly positive significant (P≤0.01) correlations were found between PLT and PCT in males, females and all the dogs, and between MPV and PDW in all the dogs. A highly positive significant (P≤0.01) correlation was found between MPV and PCT in all the dogs. It is concluded that breed and gender may influence coagulation parameters, platelets count and indices and this should be considered in clinical interpretations. Future studies are recommended using different breeds of dogs to establish wide data base for coagulation parameters.