Biology subjects

Mauthe von Degerfeld, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Mauthe von Degerfeld, M..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2020

Abdominal pain assessment in rabbits: using the CANCRS to recognize pain and testing its internal validity over time

A composite scale for pain assessment in rabbits has been previously designed and tested (CANCRS). The present study describes the refinement of the scale and the evaluation of its ability to detect pain variations over time. Furthermore, a comparison between the CANCRS and the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) has been performed, to underline the differences between an objective (CANCRS) and a subjective (VAS) assessment of abdominal pain. In the first part of the study, 86 rabbits (n=47 heathy patients and n=39 patients with gastrointestinal stasis syndrome) underwent pain assessments with the VAS and the CANCRS. Thirty-two patients with gastrointestinal stasis syndrome participated to the second part of the study. These patients underwent four pain assessments with the CANCRS. The first assessment took place before meloxicam administration and the others after 30, 60 and 90 minutes. The CANCRS showed differences between healthy and diseased rabbits (P = 0.0001), median scores were 5 (IQR 4 - 6) and 9 (IQR 7 - 11) respectively. The VAS showed differences between healthy and diseased rabbits (P = 0.02), the median scores were 4 (IQR 2 - 5.35) and 5.3 (IQR 2.65 - 6.45) respectively. The cut-off scores for the CANCRS and for the VAS for differentiation between healthy and diseased patients were 7 (Sp 89%, Se 79%) and 4.4 (Sp 59%, Se 69%) respectively. Sensitivity and specificity for each parameter of the CANCRS were calculated, in order to obtain weighting factors. Accordingly, the evaluation of respiratory pattern and vocalizations should be excluded from the CANCRS, since their performances in pain evaluation are poor. Internal validity of the CANCRS was tested assessing pain before and after the analgesic treatment and the results showed significancy at each time point. The CANCRS showed better performances than the VAS and its responsiveness to pain variations has been verified.

zoology↗

bioRxiv2019

Development and validation of a multidimensional composite pain scale for Rabbit (CANCRS) in a clinical environment

The main objective of this study was to develop a multidimensional composite pain scale for assessing and quantifying pain in rabbits (CANCRS); to this purpose, Rabbit Grimace Scale (RbtGS) and a scale including clinical parameters (CPS) were merged; the two scales performances were also evaluated individually, in order to validate RbtGS in a clinical setting and to verify clinical parameters usefulness in detecting pain.\n\nRabbits (n=116) were evaluated by two raters, who could be veterinarians (V) or veterinary medicine students (S). Raters were asked to report the time needed for any evaluation and a total score, in order to define a pain class. Pain classes (No pain, Discomfort, Moderate pain and Severe pain) matched presumptive pain classes and accordingly, the validity of the three scales was measured using Chi-square test.\n\nPatients (n=69) were evaluated by one V and one S, allowing to assess the impact that the experience has on the results. Inter-rater reliability was tested for each scale using intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and for each parameter of the CANCRS using Cohens kappa. Validity results show that only CANCRS and RbtGS efficiently reveal pain, but both tend to underestimate it.\n\nInter-rater reliability was very good for both CANCRS and CPS, suggesting that experience has little influence on the results; raters experience has a greater impact using RbtGS.\n\nInter-rater agreement was at least good for each parameter.\n\nIn conclusion, CPS alone is neither effective or reliable in quantifying pain.\n\nThe RbtGS is a useful tool in clinical practice, when coping with many rabbit breeds; however, training is beneficial for a better use of the scale.\n\nThe CANCRS is easy and fast to use and enrich RbtGS with some clinical parameters that should be monitored during any clinical examination, leading to a more exhaustive evaluation of the patient.

animal behavior and cognition↗