Radiography, Ultrasound, and Anthropometry in Dog Nutrition Evaluation

Abstract The nutritional status of dogs is a prominent theme nowadays because it is considered one of the five vital parameters of animals. There are several techniques that allow diagnosing disorders or disturbances in the body condition of these patients. Although it has some subjectivity, as it is a visual and palpation evaluation, the body condition score (BCS) is the most used for this purpose. The present study evaluated radiographic, sonographic and anthropometric measurements of subcutaneous fat deposited in the dorsal region over the seventh lumbar vertebra of 100 dogs, compared to a double-blind classification of patients on the numerical scale of the BMC. There was a positive correlation of the sonographic measurements with the body condition score (p-value below 2 x 10-16 and R = 0.54) and the same was observed with the radiographic measurements (p-value below 2 x 10-16 and R = 0.56) and anthropometric evaluations (whose p-value ranged from 1.55 x 10-7 to 2.34 x 10-11 and its R was 0.24 to 0.36). With this, it was possible to identify greater intensity in the relationship of imaging exams with ECC. It is concluded that radiography and ultrasonography have great potential for use in clinical routine as a more accurate and affordable way to diagnose nutritional disorders. This is the first study to use such equipment together with imaging tests to contribute to the early diagnosis of changes in nutritional status and promote improvements in the follow-up of weight gain or weight loss programs.