VETSCAN VS2
Patient preparation
- Avoid feeding patients for 10 to 12 hours prior to an appointment unless it is contraindicated
- In horses and ruminants, fasting prior to chemistry analysis is not required
- A postprandial sample may cause lipemic interference
- Food consumption can affect biochemistry analytes— particularly glucose, urea and creatinine1,2
- Avoid exercise and minimize any excitement/fear prior to the appointment
- Can cause transient hyperglycemia in cats3
- Consider timing requirements for proper test interpretation
- Confirm timing of medication dosing and testing:
- Total thyroxine [T4] and phenobarbital monitoring
- Feeding around postprandial bile acid [BA] testing
- Understand that certain medications may impact test results
- Phenobarbital may decrease T4 concentration
- Phenobarbital may decrease glucocorticoids
- Phenobarbital may increase liver enzymes
- Minimize any excitement/fear during the appointment
- Can cause transient hyperglycemia in cats3
- Consider the use of sedation and anxiety medication to help decrease stress for anxious animals and enable safer and gentler restraint, when appropriate
- For dehydrated or very sick patients, consider centrifuging the sample prior to testing, and run the rotor using plasma (vs whole blood)
- Abnormal findings on other diagnostic tests may correlate with abnormal analyte values in certain disease states
- When a urinalysis identifies a glucosuria, expect blood glucose levels to be elevated
- Good sample collection technique is critical (clean needle puncture of the vein, minimal suction, steadily paced drawback)
- Poor technique leads to an increased risk of clotting or hemolysis
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References: 1. Monti, P, Archer, J, BSAVA Manual of Canine and Feline Clinical Pathology, 2016, 11-26 (v2.0) - p11, Column 2 (p.1) Food consumption can affect biochemistry tests, in particular cholesterol, triglyceride, glucose and urea. 2. Elliott, J., White, J. IRIS: International Renal Interest Society - IRIS Staging System 2019 (v1.0) - Increased CRE after consumption of meat based diet (p.3) Consumption of meat-based diets will lead to absorption of creatinine post-prandially thus it is important that blood samples for measurement 3. Allison, RW., Veterinary Hematology and Clinical Chemistry, 2012, 425-440 (v1.0) - Physiologic (p.7) Physiologic. Mild hyperglycemia can occur secondary to several physiologic responses. During diestrus, progesterone stimulates release of