Estudo de segurança clínico-laboratorial da sinvastatina em cães

Abstract

Dyslipidemia or hyperlipidemia is an emerging clinical condition in today's dogs. Scientific evidence suggests that it can precede diseases of clinical importance such as pancreatitis, insulin resistance, and hepatobiliary disease. Simvastatin is an important lipid-lowering agent that primarily acts to lower LDL cholesterol, reversibly inhibiting the HMG-CoA enzyme. The objective of this study was to evaluate the possible adverse effects in dogs submitted to simvastatin treatment. For this purpose, 27 beagle dogs of both sexes, clinically healthy and aged 1-7 years, were used in the Experimental Chemistry Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of UFRRJ (LQEPV-UFRRJ), attached to the Department of Animal Parasitology. Safety was assessed by means of general clinical evaluations, laboratory tests (hemogram, urea, creatinine, alkaline phosphatase, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, creatine kinase, total proteins, albumin, cholesterol and triglycerides) and abdominal ultrasonography. The most frequent clinical occurrences were vomiting (11 animals) and changes in stool consistency (20 animals). Ultrasonography evidenced alterations suggestive of gastritis, biliary mud and hepatosplenomegaly. Regarding the laboratory parameters, a statistically significant difference was observed in the rates of aspartate aminotransferase, triglycerides, platelets and albumin; occurring increase of the first and decrease of the others. The changes were not related to treatment with simvastatin, concluding that simvastatin is safe medication for use in dogs.