ASSOCIATION BETWEEN HYPERADRENOCORTICISM AND DEVELOPMENT OF CALCIUM-CONTAINING UROLITHS IN DOGS WITH UROLITHIASIS

Objective-To determine, among dogs with urolithiasis, whether dogs tha t had hyperadrenocorticism would be more likely to have calcium-contai ning uroliths than would dogs that did not have clinical evidence of h yperadrenocorticism. Design-Retrospective case-control study. Animals- 20 dogs that had urolithiasis and hyperadrenocorticism and 42 breed-ma tched dogs that had urolithiasis but did not have clinical evidence of hyperadrenocorticism. Procedure-Signalment, urolith composition, resu lts of bacterial culture of urine, and results of adrenal axis tests w ere recorded. A multivariate logistic regression model was created, in cluding terms for age, sex, and hyperadrenocorticism. The outcome vari able was presence or absence of calcium-containing uroliths. Results-A mong dogs with urolithiasis, those that had hyperadrenocorticism were 10 times as likely to have calcium-containing uroliths as were dogs th at did not have clinical evidence of hyperadrenocorticism (odds ratio, 10.5; 95% confidence interval, 1.5 to 23.4). Neutered and sexually in tact females were less likely to have calcium-containing uroliths than were neutered males (odds ratios, 0.041 [95% confidence interval, 0.0 057 to 0.29] and 0.024 [95% confidence interval, 0.0012 to 0.5], respe ctively). Clinical Implications-Prompt diagnosis and treatment of hype radrenocorticism may decrease prevalence of calcium-containing urolith s in dogs.