INVESTIGATIONS INTO HYPERLIPIDEMIA AND ITS POSSIBLE ...

116
were a diagnosis of hypertriglyceridemia and willingness of each dog’s owners to enroll
their dog in the study. All dogs included in the study had to have absence of any clinical
signs at the time of blood collection and no history of diseases or current use of drugs
known to affect lipid metabolism. They also had to have a normal body condition score
(BCS; between 4 and 6 on a scale of 1 to 9). In addition, for each dog, serum Spec cPL,
glucose, total T4, and free T4 (by equilibrium dialysis) concentrations were measured.
Based on the historical information for each dog and the results of the tests performed,
all hypertriglyceridemic dogs enrolled in this study were diagnosed as having primary
idiopathic hypertriglyceridemia.
A group of healthy Miniature Schnauzers with serum triglyceride and cholesterol
concentrations within the respective reference intervals (Group 2) was used as a control
group for the lipoprotein profile portion of the study. Dogs in Group 2 were used in
order to obtain lipoprotein profiles from a group of healthy Miniature Schnauzers that
could be used for illustration of whether lipoprotein profiles of hypertriglyceridemic
Miniature Schnauzers tended to approach those of the healthy ones after the diet change.
Dogs of Group 2 had to have absence of any clinical signs at the time of blood collection
and no history of diseases or current use of drugs known to affect lipid metabolism.
They also had to have a normal BCS (between 4 and 6 on a scale of 1 to 9) and be on
diets that were not labeled as low-fat diets at the time of blood collection.