Many surgical techniques have been described in the literature to repair chronic tendon or ligament ruptures. Although direct approximation of the edges is the surgical technique of choice, the use of synthetic, fascia lata, semitendinosus muscle, and small intestinal submucosa grafts has been described to repair large defects or augment tenous repairs. The aim of this paper was to present the long-term outcome of two clinical cases using a common calcaneal tendon cadaver allograft with subsequent application of platelet-rich plasma for chronic ruptures diagnosed by ultrasound, with a chronic defect between both edges. Twenty-four months after common calcaneal tendon rupture and 12 mo after patellar ligament rupture, orthopedic follow-up of both patients showed complete functional recovery and ultrasound findings were consistent with correct integration of the graft in both cases.

IntroductionThe study of early markers to detect kidney malfunction has increased in recent years since serum markers, such as creatinine increase when there is a 75% loss of renal mass. Urinary capillary electrophoresis (UCE) is an available laboratory technique that provides an easily interpretable electrophoretic pattern. This pattern in our study has been divided into five fractions as it is done in serum: fraction 1 migrating in the albumin zone, fraction 2 in the alpha1-globulins zone, fraction 3 in the alpha2-globulins zone, fraction 4 in the beta-globulins zone, and fraction 5 in the gamma globulins zone. UCE can be useful in the early diagnosis of renal disease.Material and methodsIn this study, UCE was performed in dogs with azotemia and proteinuria due to chronic kidney disease (CKD) not related to Leishmania infantum (L. infantum) infection (G1, n = 11) and dogs with CKD related to L. infantum infection (G2, n = 17) and compared with reference intervals from healthy dogs (G0, n = 123), with the aim of comparing their phoretograms and assessing changes in the fractions of the phoretograms based on the health status of individuals.ResultsFraction 2 was statistically augmented in dogs with CKD (G1) when compared with the healthy population (G0) and dogs infected by L. infantum (G2). Fraction 3 was statistically increased in dogs with CKD (G1) and dogs infected by L. infantum (G2) compared with G0. Fraction 4 was found to be statistically decreased in dogs with CKD (G1) and dogs infected by L. infantum (G2) compared with G0. Fraction 5 was statistically higher in dogs with L. infantum (G2) compared with G0 and dogs with CKD (G1). No statistical relationship was found between the protein to creatinine ratio and different fractions from the urinary phoretogram in the study population. No statistical relationship was found between serum and urine fractions in the study population.DiscussionThe results of the present study suggest that UCE is a promising non-invasive technique that might be used as a part of the diagnostic and follow-up in dogs with kidney disease due to different pathologies.

Electrophoresis of urine to evaluate protein fractions in dogs with proteinuria to differentiate glomerular from tubular damage has increased in recent years; however, capillary electrophoresis (CE) of urine has not been reported in a study of > 40 healthy animals, to our knowledge. We aimed to establish reference intervals (RIs) for the urine protein fractions obtained by CE of urine from healthy dogs. We obtained urine samples from 123 clinically healthy dogs of both sexes between December 2016 and April 2019; urine was frozen until CE was performed. The electrophoretic patterns obtained were divided into 5 protein fractions, and RIs were established in percentages and absolute values using nonparametric methods. RIs were obtained for the fractions (F) as follows: 5.5 to 56.2% for F1, 3.2 to 16.5% for F2, 3.5 to 16.2% for F3, 17.8 to 69.8% for F4, and 5.1 to 23.9% for F5. These RIs obtained by CE might be useful clinically as a basis for comparison with pathologic samples. Age was a statistically significant factor for F2 ( p = 0.01) and F3 ( p = 0.02), and sex was a statistically significant factor for F1 ( p = 0.03).

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a laboratory method usually used to separate proteins in body fluids such as serum, cerebrospinal fluid, or urine. Separation of proteins in urine can have clinical applications for evaluating samples from healthy dogs and dogs with proteinuria in a qualitative way, which would not be possible with gel electrophoresis. Other advantages of CE over gel electrophoresis in serum include the reduced separation time (2 min vs. 20 min in a gel), reduction of waste harmful to humans and the environment, and ability to obtain a curve without the need for additional staining. This protocol is divided into four steps. Firstly, urine needs to be prepared prior to dialysis. Secondly, urine needs to undergo dialysis to eliminate compounds that could interfere with separation, and to concentrate the urine. The third step is CE using specific equipment. The last step is to separate the fractions of the phoretograms obtained in the previous step. This method is mostly an automatized process, easily reproducible, and that can be performed in any laboratory, as a part of the diagnostic or follow-up of patients with renal disease.