Veterinar, Vol. 60. No. 1., 2022.
Professional paper
Diagnosis of Liver Diseases in Dogs
Valentina Vrban
Dalibor Potočnjak
; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Iva Šmit
; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The liver’s function is extremely diverse; it produces bile that helps in digestion and removing waste products from the blood, detoxicates some of the toxins and drugs, and is included in numerous metabolic and biochemical processes. The liver also stores vitamins and produces almost every coagulation factor that promotes blood clot formation. Clinical signs of hepatobiliary diseases are highly diverse and usually nonspecific, such as anorexia, depression, vomiting, and diarrhea. Therefore, choosing a specific diagnostic method is necessary for further diagnostic processes. With routine biochemistry panel screening, increased activity of liver enzymes can be found, such as Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) or Alkaline phosphatase (AP) and Gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), which are somewhat more specific for biliary diseases, hypoalbuminemia, hyperbilirubinemia, and decreased concentrations of urea and glucose. By measuring serum bile acid concentration before and after a meal, we can get an insight into the liver’s function, bile excretion, and enterohepatic circulation. Radiographic evaluation of the abdomen, as part of diagnostic imaging, is used to complement the physical examination and can help in the subjective evaluation of the size and position of the liver. Ultrasonography allows a more detailed understanding of vascular and biliary liver structures. It also allows an assessment regarding parenchymal echogenicity and echostructure. Computed tomography (CT) examination is becoming more common in diagnosing liver diseases, but the basis of objective diagnostics is a biopsy.
Keywords
liver; bile; diagnosis; liver enzymes; biopsy
Hrčak ID:
284830
URI
Publication date:
20.9.2022.
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