Medicine veterinarian, Student (The master's course) Kangwon National University Animal Hospital Chuncheon, Kangwon-do, Republic of Korea
Abstract: Background - In human medicine, Hemoglobin A1C (HbA1c) is widely used as a biomarker to monitor diabetic patients. It can also be used as a factor to predict the risk of diabetes for hyperglycemic patients. However, there is a lack of research on the use of HbA1c as a biomarker for screening high-risk groups for diabetes in the veterinary field. Hypothesis / Objectives - This study was conducted to confirm the clinical usefulness of HbA1c to evaluate the high-risk group for diabetes. Animals - In total, 60 dogs of different age, sex and various breeds were included. Methods - In this cross-sectional study, all the dogs were categorized into control and three experimental groups (overweight, elderly, disease[that can contribute to diabetes]). The control group included young and healthy dogs, mainly visited for health checkups or neutering. The HbA1c of all the dogs was estimated and the mean HbA1c concentration of the control and the experimental groups were statistically compared. Results - The level of HbA1c was significantly higher in all experimental groups than control group. The concentration of HbA1c was higher in the overweight group (mean [range]; 3.94[3.5-4.3] %; p<.001) and the elderly group (3.94[3.5-4.3] %; p<.001) and the disease group (3.99[3.5-4.9] %; p<.001) than the control group (3.53[2.9-3.8] %). Conclusions and Clinical importance - In the veterinary field, as in human medicine, HbA1c can be used to evaluate high-risk groups for diabetes. Keywords - Dog, Diabetes, Hemoglobin A1C, HbA1c
