Comprehensive Hematology and Blood Chemistry Analysis

Hematology was performed on an HM5 analyzer (Abaxis, https://www.abaxis.com) by using K3 EDTA-treated whole blood. We evaluated erythrocytes, hemoglobin, hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, red cell distribution weight, platelets, mean platelet volume, leukocytes, and absolute and percent neutrophil count, lymphocyte count, monocyte count, eosinophil count, and basophil count. Blood chemistries were evaluated on a VetScan 2 (Abaxis) with Comprehensive Diagnostic Profile rotors (Abaxis) by using serum stored at −80°C until tested. We evaluated glucose, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, calcium, albumin, total protein, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, amylase, potassium, sodium, phosphate, chloride, globulin, and total bilirubin. We used sodium heparin-treated blood to analyze venous blood gases by using an iSTAT Alinity V (Abaxis) instrument with a CG4+ cartridge (Abaxis) to measure lactate, pH, total carbon dioxide, partial pressure carbon dioxide, partial pressure oxygen, soluble oxygen, bicarbonate, and base excess. We used age-specific values and the instrument reference intervals to establish normal ranges (18 (link)–20 (link)).