Urinary symmetric dimethylarginine: A promising biomarker for acute kidney injury in dogs with pyometra.

Urinary SDMA may enable earlier detection and severity assessment of acute kidney injury in dogs.

This study investigates urinary symmetric dimethylarginine (uSDMA) as a novel biomarker for acute kidney injury in dogs with pyometra. SDMA is an arginine metabolite that reflects renal function independent of muscle mass and diet, detecting dysfunction at 25% renal function loss—earlier than serum creatinine. The researchers measured uSDMA concentrations and uSDMA-to-creatinine ratios in 27 non-azotemic pyometra dogs, correlating findings with renal histopathology severity. Results demonstrated significantly elevated uSDMA in dogs with severe renal lesions (0.43 µg/mL) compared to moderate (0.31 µg/mL) and discrete lesions (0.26 µg/mL). The uSDMA/Cr ratio also significantly increased with lesion severity, showing promise as an AKI severity assessment tool. Limitations include absence of healthy controls and lack of longitudinal measurements preventing dynamic change assessment. Despite preliminary nature, findings suggest uSDMA warrants further investigation as a sensitive marker for early AKI detection and monitoring in canine patients.

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