ReviewVeterinary evidence
Is symmetric dimethylarginine superior to creatinine for assessing glomerular filtration rate for cats with kidney disease?
Review in Veterinary evidence. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Massive Unilateral Pyonephrosis with Extreme Leukocytosis in a Cat: A Case Report.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
PICO question: Is symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA) superior to creatinine for assessing glomerular filtration rate (GFR) for cats with chronic kidney disease? Clinical bottom line: Category of research: Diagnosis. Number and type of study designs reviewed: The literature searches returned four relevant papers that answered this PICO. Three of the studies were retrospective diagnostic test studies, and one was a randomised, controlled, unblinded study. Strength of evidence: Moderate. Outcomes reported: Three out of the four studies analysed found that there was no significant difference between the correlation between symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA) and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and creatinine (sCr) and GFR, whilst the other identified a stronger correlation between SDMA and GFR. Two papers also evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of SDMA compared to creatinine. One paper found a similar sensitivity for both biomarkers and a significantly higher specificity for creatinine using the upper reference interval of 18 µg/dL for SDMA and 155.6 µmol/L (1.76 mg/dL) sCr, whilst the other found SDMA to have a superior sensitivity and both biomarkers to have a similar specificity using the upper reference interval of 14 µg/dL for SDMA and 185.64 µmol/L (2.1 mg/dL) for sCr. Conclusion: In view of the strength of evidence we conclude that the majority of the studies analysed do not demonstrate that SDMA is superior to creatinine for the assessment of GFR in cats with chronic kidney disease. More research is needed with larger sample sizes to investigate this further. Standardisation of the upper reference intervals across studies for creatinine and SDMA would be advantageous for comparison of sensitivity and specificity in future studies.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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