Evaluation of Serum Symmetric Dimethylarginine (SDMA) in Clinically Healthy Geriatric Horses

Abstract

In recent years, there is a necessity for horses to be evaluated for kidney function as equine kidney disease is becoming an increasing problem. As we know, horses are often treated on everyday basis with drugs that can be nephrotoxic in some instances. This is why practitioners need to be familiar with different kidney biomarkers and their normal values in all horse age groups, as different age groups might have slight or significant differences in normal values. In this article we evaluate equine serum SDMA, which is becoming widely used and accepted in clinical practice as a biomarker for early detection of kidney injury. We evaluate its serum concentration in the geriatric group of horses in order to bring more insight into its use in this age group.