Evaluation of Client‐Specific Outcome Measures and Activity Monitoring to Measure Pain Relief in Cats with Osteoarthritis

Abstract

Background: There are no validated systems for measuring pain from osteoarthritis in cats. Hypothesis: Owner subjective assessments and an activity monitor (AM) can be used to detect pain in cats with osteoarthritis and to assess efficacy of treatments.Animals: Thirteen cats older than 10 years old, with owner-assessed decreases in activity, painful arthritic joints, and clinically normal blood work were included and evaluated for 3 weeks.Methods: A collar-mounted AM measured activity and a client-specific outcome measure (CSOM) questionnaire characterized the severity of impairment. Overall global quality of life was also evaluated for each treatment. In weeks 2 and 3, meloxicam (0.1 mg/kg, day 1; 0.05 mg/kg, days 2-5) or a placebo was administered in a blinded, randomized, cross-over manner to test the assessment systems.Results: The cats had a median of 4 arthritic appendicular joints. Activity counts for the week when cats (complete data on activity; n 5 9) were administered meloxicam were significantly higher than at baseline (P 5 .02) but not after placebo (P 5 .06). Baseline activity counts were not significantly different from placebo (P 5 .6). The CSOM data (n 5 13) showed that owners considered their cats to be more active on meloxicam compared with baseline (P 5 .001) and placebo (P , .004), and more active on placebo than at baseline (P , .01). Global quality of life improved significantly with meloxicam (P , .042).Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Both an AM and a CSOM system can detect behavior associated with pain relief in cats that are arthritic. Objective activity data might allow subjective assessment systems to be validated for use in clinical studies.

Evoked Temporal Summation in Cats to Highlight Central Sensitization Related to Osteoarthritis-Associated Chronic Pain: A Preliminary Study

“…This was expected, because TS is specific to central sensitization, which is not correlated with the severity of structural or functional impairment related to chronic pain. The effect of NSAID treatment on MA intensity [10], [13] leads to a similar conclusion, suggesting that MA intensity may be more closely related to the inflammatory component of feline OA pain.…”

“…These three evaluation methods were used in a previous study using a larger sample, where both PVF and vFWT discriminated between OA and non-OA cats [10]. Although MA intensity was not sensitive to the presence of OA [10], it was still included in the present study as an objective measure of the effect of OA pain on physical activity and function; MA was significantly affected by both administration of the analgesic non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) meloxicam [10], [13] and also by feeding an analgesic therapeutic diet [12]. The sample of OA cats used in our study therefore truly characterized cats with OA-related chronic pain.…”

“…The peak vertical ground reaction force (PVF) quantifies limb impairment that may be related to decreased use because of pain [9]–[11]. In addition, accelerometer-based motor activity (MA) assessment enables objective quantification of the impairment of normal function related to OA-associated chronic pain [10], [12], [13].…”

Prevalence and classification of chronic kidney disease in cats randomly selected from four age groups and in cats recruited for degenerative joint disease studies

“…Radiographic DJD is very common in cats; however, these findings do not correlate well with results of orthopedic examination,8–10 making the diagnosis of DJD-associated pain and impairment challenging. There are many proposed treatments for feline DJD 11,12. Although nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have been shown to be efficacious in controlling pain associated with DJD in cats, there is concern regarding the use of NSAIDs in cats with DJD and concurrent CKD13 owing to the recognized role prostanoids play in renal function 14…”

Quantification of activity in domestic cats (Felis catus) by accelerometry

“…Over the past decade accelerometer technology has advanced considerably, with the devices becoming smaller, cheaper and easier to use. Consequently, accelerometers are increasingly used as a tool to quantify activity in a variety of species including humans (Hendelman et al, 2000;Trost et al, 2000;Kumahara et al, 2004;Penpraze et al, 2006 Hartel et al, 2011), rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) (Papailiou et al, 2008), dairy cows (At-Taras and Spahr, 2001;McGowan et al, 2007), dogs (Canis familiaris) Brown et al, 2010;Yam et al, 2011;Singh, 2013), and cats (Watanabe et al, 2005;Lascelles et al, 2007;Lascelles et al, 2008).…”