Cutting-edge therapeutics of telmisartan for quadriplegic symptom in advanced age feline: evaluation with thermography imaging.

Introduction: Small animal veterinary practitioners often encounter a quadriplegic pet feline associated with aging in the clinical setting. Aging-induced muscular weakness and excessive stress due to aggressive examinations and treatment in the practice have been suggested to induce potentially unexpected systemic risks in quadriplegic feline. Accordingly, safer and more effective examinations and treatment have not yet currently established in elderly feline with quadriplegia. To establish physically and mentally minimally invasive examinations in those populations, this time, we studied changes in the auricular and distal limb surface temperature as a peripheral tissue microcirculatory index, using a newly introduced non-contact infrared thermometer; thermographic imaging (TGI). Elderly feline with quadriplegia accompanying low temperatures of the auricles and distal limbs received telmisartan, an angiotensin II type 1 receptor blocker (ARB) to increase peripheral microcirculation. We report our study results since new interesting observations were found.
Results: The cases in this study included 4 elderly crossbreed feline with quadriplegic symptoms; an 11-year-old castrated male and 15-, 17-, and 20-year-old spayed females with mean age of 16±4 years. TGI clarified that oral telmisartan at 0.5-0.1 mg/kg once daily significantly raised auricular and distal limb surface temperatures in 4 feline; 2 each of within 24 hours and within 72 hours. In addition, telmisartan successfully improved paralysis symptoms of the limbs in all feline. Of special note was that the symptoms almost disappeared in one feline with severe circular movements.
Discussion: Telmisartan is a new ARB agent that has been released to market since Jul 2014, indicating for chronic renal failure in feline for the first time in the small animal clinical practice. Our current study proved that peripheral tissue microcirculation improvement effects of telmisartan were highly beneficial for quadriplegia in elderly feline. Therefore, we believe that telmisartan is also effective to ease various symptoms resulting from peripheral tissue microcirculatory failure in addition to renal failure in feline, and our study results may lead to a product line extension of telmisartan. In addition, we found the non-contact TGI, new device in this study, to be one of useful testing tools that enables us to assess microcirculatory levels in elderly feline with a physically minimally invasive method. TGI will make a safe, affordable and powerful device with a wide clinical application in the small animal clinical setting, apart from feline in the future.


microcirculation cat feline dog canine angiotensin ARB telmisartan sarcopenia and frailty
Glymphatic System The Nasalymphatic pathway　PPARγ