Associations between proteinuria, systemic hypertension and glomerular filtration rate in dogs with renal and non‐renal diseases

Proteinuria and systemic hypertension are well recognised risk factors in chronic renal failure ( crf ). They are consequences of renal disease but also lead to a further loss of functional kidney tissue. The objectives of this study were to investigate the associations between proteinuria, systemic hypertension and glomerular filtration rate ( gfr ) in dogs with naturally occurring renal and non‐renal diseases, and to determine whether proteinuria and hypertension were associated with shorter survival times in dogs with crf . Measurements of exogenous creatinine plasma clearance ( ecpc ), urine protein:creatinine ratio ( upc ), and Doppler sonographic measurements of systolic blood pressure ( sbp ) were made in 60 dogs with various diseases. There was a weak but significant inverse correlation between upc and ecpc , a significant inverse correlation between sbp and ecpc and a weak but significant positive correlation between upc and sbp . Some of the dogs with crf were proteinuric and almost all were hypertensive. Neoplasia was commonly associated with proteinuria in the dogs with a normal ecpc . crf was the most common cause leading to hypertension. In the dogs with crf , hypertension and marked proteinuria were associated with significantly shorter survival times.