Vetgirl Veterinary Continuing Education Podcasts

In this VETgirl podcast, Dr. Lisa Powell, DACVECC reviews a study out of Canada that reviews the effects of tetrastarch, a synthetic colloid fluid on hemodynamic and laboratory variables in both healthy dogs and dogs with systemic inflammation. The goal of this study was to evaluate the response of administering equal volumes of isotonic crystalloids (0.9% saline) and synthetic colloids (e.g., tetrastarch) on hemodynamic and laboratory variables in dogs. This study looked at two population of dogs: healthy dogs and dogs with systemic inflammation. This study also evaluated several parameters including heart rate (HR), blood pressure, PCV, total protein (TP), lactate, and colloid osmotic pressure (COP) measurements. So, what'd they find? Overall, the administration of colloids was associated with a larger improvement in HR, systolic blood pressure, and mean blood pressure. Dogs with systemic inflammation also had similar increases in systolic blood pressure and decreases in PCV, TP, and lactate after administ