Creatina quinase sérica em cães saudáveis de diferentes portes

Abstract

Creatine phosphokinase (CK) is the primary biomarker of muscle injury in veterinary clinical practice; however, its commonly used reference values are heterogeneous and frequently based on outdated methods. This work was structured in two chapters: the first is a review of CK, and the second is a study aimed at determining reference intervals (RI) for serum CK in healthy dogs, analyzing the influence of body size, sex, and physical activity. A total of 235 adult dogs were evaluated, initially divided into five groups (toy, small, medium, large, and giant). Health status was confirmed through clinical and laboratory examinations, and CK activity was measured using the UV kinetic method (NAC-activated). The overall RI obtained was 74.20 to 587.08 U/L. When the animals were regrouped into three categories (small, medium, and large), it was observed that small-sized dogs present significantly higher values than large-sized dogs (p = 0.0209). Sex and physical activity did not influence the results. The proposed RIs are: small size (98.88 - 663.30 U/L), medium size (74.58 - 489.47 U/L), and large size (63.16 - 541.89 U/L). The values found are higher than those reported in the classical literature, reinforcing the need for method-specific intervals for the UV kinetic assay.