Measurement of body temperature is a routine part of the clinical assessment of a patient. However, this procedure may be time-consuming and stressful to most animals because the standard site of temperature acquisition remains the rectal mucosa. Although an increasing number of clinicians have been using auricular temperature to estimate core body temperature, evidence is still lacking regarding agreement between these two methods in cats. In this investigation, we evaluated the agreement between temperatures measured in the rectum and ear in 29 healthy cats over a 2-week period. Temperatures were measured in the rectum (using digital and mercury-in-glass thermometers) and ear once a day for 14 consecutive days, producing 406 temperature readings for each thermometer. Mean temperature and confidence intervals were similar between methods, and Bland-Altman plots showed small biases and narrow limits of agreement acceptable for clinical purposes. The interobserver variability was also checked, which indicated a strong correlation between two near-simultaneous temperature readings. Results are consistent with auricular thermometry being a reliable alternative to rectal thermometry for assessing core body temperature in healthy cats.

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Pesq. Vet. Bras. 33(5): 643-647, maio 2013 643 RESUMO.-[Avaliação do eletrocardiograma em cães com leishmaniose visceral.] Devido à identificação prévia de miocardite e arritmias tanto em seres humanos quanto em cães portadores de leishmaniose, 105 cães com sorologia positiva para tal enfermidade tiveram seus eletrocardiogramas avaliados quanto à presença de distúrbios do ritmo e alterações nas ondas eletrocardiográficas. Poucas variações expressivas foram observadas, exceto parada sinusal, bloqueio de ramo direito e complexos atriais prematuros em 14,3%, 4,8%, e 4,8% dos pacientes estudados, respectivamente. Ademais, a análise do ECG demonstrou alterações sugestivas de sobrecarga do átrio e do ventrículo esquerdos e hipóxia do miocárdio. Embora o comprometimento cardíaco em cães com leishmaniose já tenha sido demonstrado anteriormente, apenas uma pequena parte dos cães avaliados apresentou alteração no eletrocardiograma, não sendo possível correlacionar com a ocorrência de miocardite nesta pesquisa. As myocarditis and arrhythmias have been shown to occur in both human beings and dogs with leishmaniasis, electrocardiograms of 105 dogs serologically positive for this disease were assessed for rhythm disturbances and changes in ECG waves. A few expressive alterations were seen, including sinus arrest, right bundle branch block, and atrial premature beats in 14.3%, 4.8%, and 4.8% of the studied subjects, respectively. Also, the analysis of ECG waves showed changes suggestive of left atrium and ventricle enlargements, and myocardial hypoxia in some animals. Although cardiac compromise has been previously reported in dogs with leishmaniasis, only a small subset of dogs showed any alteration in the electrocardiogram, which cannot support the occurrence of myocarditis in this investigation.

correspondência. RESUMOA cetamina, fármaco derivado da fenciclidina, há muito é usada na anestesia veterinária, sendo que o seu isômero (+), a cetamina S, recém-lançada no mercado, tem tido emprego principalmente na anestesia humana. Em vista disso, objetivouse, com este experimento avaliar comparativamente, as possíveis alterações eletrocardiográficas em cães anestesiados com cetamina S ou cetamina e avaliar as freqüências respiratória e cardíaca, saturação de oxihemoglobina e pressão arterial. Para tanto, foram utilizados 10 cães adultos, machos e fêmeas, sem raça definida e hígidos. Os animais foram distribuídos em dois grupos (G1 e G2) de igual número. Ao G1 administrou-se, por via intramuscular, cetamina S na dose de 20mg/kg, e ao G2, cetamina na mesma dose e via de administração empregados no G1. As observações das variáveis tiveram início imediatamente antes da aplicação dos fármacos (M1) e a cada 10 minutos (M2, M3 e M4, respectivamente). Os dados numéricos foram submetidos ao teste de Tukey, para análises repetidas no grupo, a fim de verificar significado estatístico ou não entre as médias, nos vários momentos, sendo considerado o nível de significância de 5% (p<0,05). Os resultados apresentados foram elevação da freqüência cardíaca com o uso de ambos os fármacos, discretas alterações na pressão arterial, nenhuma variação da SpO2 e impossibilidade de identificar alterações eletrocardiográficas de importância clínica entre os grupos estudados. Assim, pode-se admitir como hipótese conclusiva que as cetaminas S e racêmica apresentam efeitos similares na condutividade elétrica do miocárdio. Palavras-chave: eletrocardiograma, dissociativos, anestesia. SUMMARY Ketamine is a drug derived of the phenciclidine and has been used in veterinary anaesthesia for a long time. Its (+)isomers, s-ketamine, was recently introduced in the clinical practice and has been used mainly in human anaesthesia. So, this experiment was performed to evaluate comparatively possible electrocardiographic changes in dogs anesthetized with Sketamine or ketamine and also evaluate heart rate, respiratory rate, oxihemoglobine saturation and arterial pressure. Ten adult male and female dogs were used in this study. All dogs were healthy and mix breed. The animals were divided in two equal number groups (G1 and G2). The G1 received 20mg/kg of Sketamine intra-muscularly and G2 received the same dose of ketamine with the injection protocol. The electrocardiographic changes started immediately before the drug administration (M1) and were repeated every 10 minutes (M2, M3 and M4, respectively). The numeric data were submitted to Tukey test for analysis of the repetitions in the group to verify if the averages were statistically significant or not in the several moments with significant value of 5% (p<0.05). The presented results were heart rate elevation with both drugs, mild arterial pressure changes could also be observed. No changes in the SpO2 were detected and no electrocardiographic changes with clinic importance could be identified. Consequ...