Evaluation of the accuracy of an electronic point‐of‐care analyzer to quantify blood creatinine concentration in goats

Abstract

Abstract Background There are no commercially available handheld blood creatinine analyzers validated in goats. Objectives The objective of the study was to validate the accuracy of a handheld point‐of‐care (POC) analyzer (Nova StatSensor) for quantifying blood creatinine concentration in goats. A secondary objective was to compare this POC against a chemistry analyzer to classify goats as normal or having mild or moderate azotemia. Animals Sixty‐three goats admitted to a referral hospital. Methods Cross‐sectional study. Venous blood was obtained, and creatinine concentration was measured by the POC in duplicate. Plasma was submitted for creatinine determination via the chemistry analyzer (gold standard). Results A total of 101 blood samples were collected from 63 goats. There was high repeatability for creatinine concentrations obtained by the POC (adjusted R2 = .97, P < .0001). Correlation of POC concentrations with those reported by the chemistry analyzer was moderate (adjusted R2 = .57, P < .0001). When correctly categorizing goats with mild azotemia, the POC demonstrated a sensitivity of 73.3% and a specificity of 88.3%. For moderate to severe azotemia, the POC had a sensitivity of 75.0% and specificity of 97.5%. Conclusion and Clinical Importance The Nova StatSensor POC provided above average accuracy for measuring blood creatinine concentration in goats compared with the gold standard test.

Keywords

• azotemia
• renal
• small ruminants
• stall‐side