Agreement of different methods for assessment of progesterone concentrations in beef cattle serum.

Progesterone (P4) is responsible for the main reproduction processes. Concentration of P4 varies widely among different determination methods, and interpretation of these values may be difficult. The objective of the current study was to assess the agreement of three different enzyme immunoassays (ELISA) in relation to radioimmunoassay (RIA) of P4 concentration assessment of beef cow serum samples. Samples were collected randomly considering high (pregnant cows) and low (non-pregnant cows) P4 concentrations. Depending on the P4 assessment method, four groups were created as follows: Group 1 - direct samples assessed by ELISA, Group 2 - extracted samples assessed by ELISA, Group 3 - samples assessed by automated ELISA, and Group 4 - samples assessed by RIA. The mean progesterone concentration was 4.50 ng/mL, 1.24 ng/mL, 4.07 ng/mL and 4.39 ng/mL from Group 1 to Group 4, respectively. The mean difference (MD) between Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3 individually compared with Group 4 was -0.10 ± 1.24 ng/mL, 3.15 ± 3.58 ng/mL and 0.33 ± 1.42 ng/mL, and the 95% confidence interval (CI) for the differences (s) was from -0.99 to 0.78 ng/mL, from 0.59 to 5.71 ng/mL, and from -0.69 to 1.34 ng/mL, respectively. The confidence interval for the lower and upper limit of the agreement ranged from -4.12 to -1.05 ng/mL and from 0.84 to 3.91 ng/mL between Group 1 and Group 4, from -8.45 to 0.42 ng/ mL and from 5.88 to 14.75 ng/mL between Group 2 and Group 4, from -4.29 to -0.76 ng/mL, and from 1.41 to 4.94 ng/mL between Group 3 and Group 4. Our findings show that the best agreement with RIA was observed for Group 1 and Group 3, while the agreement in the extraction method was least accurate.

Comparison of the cardiovascular and respiratory effects and sevoflurane requirement in dogs premedicated with two doses of medetomidine and butorphanol undergoing surgical sterilization.

The aim of this study was to compare the cardiovascular and respiratory effects and sevoflurane requirement in dogs premedicated with two doses of medetomidine and butorphanol undergoing surgical sterilization. The dogs were randomly assigned to two different groups: group 1 received a lower dose of medetomidine (0.014 mg/kg) and butorphanol (0.14 mg/kg) and group 2 received a higher dose of medetomidine (0.024 mg/kg) and butorphanol (0.24 mg/kg). Anesthesia was induced with intravenous propofol and maintained with sevoflurane 2% in pure oxygen. Heart rate, SpO2, respiratory rate, EtCO2, esophageal temperature, systolic and diastolic arterial blood pressures, capillary refill time, reflexes (palpebral, pedal), jaw tone, and eye position (straight, down) were assessed. Anesthesia was monitored continuously by an anesthesiologist, and variables were recorded every 5 min. During general anesthesia, the median sevoflurane (SVO) concentrations and the median HR were significantly lower in group 2 than group 1 (p<0.05). The median HR was 96.3 (85.8-100.8) in group 1, whereas in group 2 it was 77.0 (67.5-84.6) (p<0.05). It might be concluded that the higher dose of medetomidine and butorphanol allows the use of a lower sevoflurane concentration during routine surgical treatments and ensures stable work of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.