Pericardial effusion as a manifestation of feline infectious peritonitis

Item	Breed	Age	Sex	Presence of pericardial effusion	Presence of tamponade	Feline NT-proBNP concentration (pmol/L)
1	European mixed	3 years	Male		+	733
2	European mixed	4 years	Female	+		155
3	European mixed	11 months	Female	+		180
4	Maine coon	2 years	Male		+	230
5	British shorthair	8 months	Male	+		182
6	European mixed	5 years	Male	+		138
7	European mixed	7 years	Female	+		144
8	Sphynx	2 years	Female		+	380
9	European mixed	3 years	Female	+		99
10	European mixed	9 months	Male	+		80
11	Maine coon	1 year	Female	+		121
12	European mixed	2 years	Male	+		132
13	European mixed	5 months	Female		+	499
14	European mixed	7 years	Male	+		76
15	Siamese	1 year	Female	+		103
16	European mixed	5 years	Male	+		134
17	European mixed	5 years	Male		+	341
18	British shorthair	1 year	Female	+		133
19	European mixed	3 years	Female	+		240
20	Norwegian forest	2 years	Male	+		145
21	Sphynx	11 months	Female		+	589
22	European mixed	8 years	Male	+		74
23	Devon rex	9 months	Female	+		188
24	Maine coon	2 years	Male		+	204
25	European mixed	4 years	Female	+		311
26	Devon rex	3 years	Female		+	371
27	European mixed	1 year	Male	+		220
28	Devon rex	8 months	Female	+		169
29	European mixed	2 years	Female		+	435
30	European mixed	7 years	Male	+		80
31	European mixed	6 years	Female	+		180
32	Ragdoll	2 years	Female	+		209
33	European mixed	11 months	Male		+	530
34	European mixed	5 years	Female	+		90
35	European mixed	6 years	Male	+		330
36	Devon rex	2 years	Male	+		154
37	British shorthair	1 year	Female		+	484

1 NT-ProBNP – N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide

Echocardiographic image demonstrating feline cardiac tamponade with compression of the cardiac chambers due to pericardial effusion

Echocardiographic image demonstrating pericardial effusion surrounding the heart of a feline patient

Table 2.

Chi-squared test results for association between selected variables and the presence of pericardial effusion in cats

	Yates’ chi-squared	Yates’ P-value
Male vs female	0.104	0.747
Purebred vs mixed-breed	0.581	0.446
≤2 years vs >2 years	0.833	0.361

Table 3.

Chi-squared test results for association between selected variables and the presence of cardiac tamponade in cats

	Yates’ chi-squared	Yates’ P-value
Male vs female	0.005	0.943
Purebred vs mixed-breed	0.581	0.446
≤2 years vs >2 years	0.833	0.361

Table 4.

Basic statistical data and normality parameters

	Median concentration of feline NT-proBNP (pmol/L)	Mean concentration of feline NT-proBNP (pmol/L)	Shapiro-Wilk P-value
Male	154	223	0.0009
Female	184	254	0.0130
≤2 years	188	256	0.0018
>2 years	150	222	0.0016
Purebred	168	244	0.0065
Mixed-breed	188	236	0.0019

1 NT-proBNP – N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide

Table 5.

Mann–Whitney U test parameters

	U	Mann–Whitney U P-value
Male vs female	138.0	0.337
Purebred vs mixed-breed	138.0	0.412
≤2 years vs >2 years	207.0	0.238

Box and violin plots showing the median, interquartile range and outliers for N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) concentrations (pmol/L) in the studied groups of cats for: A) purebred vs mixed-breed; B) male vs female; C) ≤2 years vs >2 years

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jvetres-2026-0039 | Journal eISSN: 2450-8608 (formerly 2300-3235)

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Language: English

Submitted on: Jan 23, 2026

Accepted on: Jul 28, 2026

Published on: Aug 3, 2026

Published by: National Veterinary Research Institute in Pulawy

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

feline infectious peritonitis,

pericardial effusion,

Related subjects:

Microbiology and virology,

Life sciences, other,

Medicine,

Veterinary medicine

© 2026 Łukasz Mazurek, Stanisław Winiarczyk, Łukasz Adaszek, Katarzyna Michalak, Dorota Pietras-Ożga, published by National Veterinary Research Institute in Pulawy
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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Pericardial effusion as a manifestation of feline infectious peritonitis

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