Preliminary demonstration of benchtop NMR metabolic profiling of feline urine: chronic kidney disease as a case study

Abstract Objective The use of benchtop metabolic profiling technology based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was evaluated in a small cohort of cats with a view to applying this as a viable and rapid metabolic tool to support clinical decision making. Results Urinary metabolites were analysed from four subjects consisting of two healthy controls and two chronic kidney disease (CKD) IRIS stage 2 cases. The study identified 15 metabolites in cats with CKD that were different from the controls. Among them were acetate, creatinine, citrate, taurine, glycine, serine and threonine. Benchtop NMR technology is capable of distinguishing between chronic kidney disease case and control samples in a pilot feline cohort based on metabolic profile. We offer perspectives on the further development of this pilot work and the potential of the technology, when combined with sample databases and computational intelligence techniques to offer a clinical decision support tool not only for cases of renal disease but other metabolic conditions in the future.