Measurement of urinary urea nitrogen content as an estimate of the amount of total urinary nitrogen loss in dogs in intensive care units.

摘要

Urine was collected from 24 dogs admitted to an intensive care unit of a veterinary teaching hospital during a 24-hour period. Total daily urinary nitrogen content adjusted for metabolic body weight ranged from 0.21 to 2.21 g/kg0.75 (mean, 0.81±0.46g/kg0.75). Adjusted daily urinary urea nitrogen (UUN) content ranged from 0.05 to 1.50 g/kg0.75 (mean, 0.54±0.38 g/kg0.75). Total urinary nitrogen content was highly correlated with UUN content. It is concluded that measurement of UUN content can be used to estimate total urinary nitrogen content and that critical illness in dogs is associated with substantial catabolism of endogenous proteins.