Entries in Cases/Abstracts (68)

Saturday
Jul132013

Cutaneous Mass: A Case Report

Honorable Mention, Cases/Abstracts
Jacquelyn Horner, University of Georgia

1. Subjective:

Chance

4 YO male neutered boxer

Wt: 29 kg

Resides in Georgia

Chance is a blood donor for the UGA CVM Teaching Hospital. He undergoes yearly health screenings, which include physical examination, vaccination, and parasite testing. He is presenting today for his annual visit. He is bright, alert, and responsive. There are no abnormalities noted on physical exam, with the exception of a small, cutaneous mass on the lateral right hind leg. He has a BCS of 4/9. His lungs are clear and his heart is loud and strong. The owner states that the mass has been present for at least one year and has not changed in size during that time. It does not seem to bother Chance. The owner has noticed that upon manipulation, the mass undergoes temporary changes such as swelling and redness.

Chance was previously seen for routine bloodwork to be evaluated as a canine blood donor candidate approximately 6 months ago. A series of blood/diagnostic tests were run including: CBC, chemistry, urinalysis, tick panel, parasite smear, fecal flotation, heartworm test, and blood typing. There were no abnormalities found. The superficial mass was noted in the records at that time, but was not further evaluated.

Due to the patient history, breed, and physical exam findings, a fine needle aspirate was taken from the cutaneous mass.

Objective:

Chance has a cutaneous mass measuring 1cm X 1cm on his right lateral stifle. The fine needle aspirate cytology (Wright’s stain) revealed large numbers of round cells with purple intracytoplasmic granules:

Fine needle aspirate was attempted at the regional popliteal lymph node as well, but it was unsuccessful.

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Wednesday
Jul102013

Case Report: Malamute with Thrombocytopenia

Honorable Mention, Cases/Abstracts
Hailey Harroun, Colorado

Signalment

Kaiyuh
3yr old FS Malamute
120lb
Longmont, CO

Kaiyuh, a 3-year-old female spayed Malmute, presented to her primary care veterinarian for acute onset epistaxis and a two day history of anorexia. Kaiyuh was current on flea, tick and heartworm medicines, and vaccinations. Owners reported no flea or tick problems and were confident that their pets had no access to rodent poison.  Kaiyuh’s only travel history was to Wyoming, and her only current medication was phenylpropanolamine for congenital urinary incontinence. Kaiyuh appeared bright and alert upon presentation. Initial differentials for Kaiyuh’s signalment were trauma, foreign body, anticoagulant rodenticide toxicity, neoplasia and fungal granuloma.

Diagnostics

The primary care veterinarian examined a blood smear of Kaiyuh’s epistaxis and radiographed her skull. No apparent abnormalities were found on blood smear, and no trauma, tumor or foreign body was found on the radiographs. The primary care veterinarian was concerned about anticoagulant rodenticide poisoning, and recommended that the owners take Kaiyuh to a nearby emergency hospital in order to evaluate her clotting times. She also sent the owners with an injection of Vitamin K for treatment of the presumptive diagnosis. The owners took Kaiyuh to the emergency hospital, at which point the emergency veterinarians noticed hyphema and large patches of echymotic hemorrhage on her abdomen. In-house testing revealed that all clotting times were normal and that Kaiyuh had profound thrombocytopenia with a platelet count of 29,000. PCV was 49, and serum chemistry values were all normal except for an elevated lipase. Top differentials at this stage of the clinical evaluation were infectious thrombocytopenia (Rickettsia, Ehrlichia, Anaplasma), immune-mediated thrombocytopenia and vaccine-associated thrombocytopenia.

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Friday
Jun282013

Chronic Quadriceps Contracture in an Adult Cat

Winner, Cases/Abstracts
Ashley Nichols, Ross

Cloe is my three-year-old, spayed, Domestic Short Hair, feline that was adopted in 2010 at the age of one. When Cloe was adopted from the shelter, she displayed a hind limb deformity. The right hind limb deformity resulted in a permanent extension of the right hind limb (Figure 1). It was suggested by the shelter that the “cat was abused or hit by a car prior to arrival.” Subsequently, I have not seen nor taken any radiographs of the right hind limb. Since 2010, there have been no clinically observable changes in the condition of the right hind limb and Cloe has been up to date on all medications, and vaccines. On December 17th, 2012, Dr Paula A. Schuerer DVM saw Cloe as a new patient. She was seen for a physical exam and baseline radiographs.

 

Physical Examination

Cloe’s weight, 9 lbs, and body condition score (3.5/5) put her in the overweight category.  Nevertheless, with exception to abnormalities being in the muscular skeletal system, the rest of physical exam findings were within normal limits. Examination of Cloe’s movement demonstrated an abnormal gait. Yet, she had no difficulty in moving around the exam room, including an attempt to jump off the exam table. When in a sitting position, it was observed that Cloe’s right hind limb was in a fixed position and abnormally protruded from the body.

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Friday
May032013

Gene Therapy for Osteoarthritis: Kinematic Analysis

Entry, Cases/Abstracts
Nichole Hughes, University of Florida

Steve Ghivizzani, MD; Patrick T. Colahan, DVM; Nichole Hughes
Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, Gainesville FL
Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation, University of Florida College of Medicine,  Gainesville FL
Research supported by Merial

Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most prevalent diseases worldwide, causing chronic joint pain and progressive immobility due to the erosion of articular cartilage, subchondral bone sclerosis, and osteophyte formation. Though OA is widely unaffected by current treatments, experimentation has shown that local gene delivery of IL-1Ra (receptor antagonist) using scAAV (self-complimentary adeno-associated virus) vectors can have a significant effect in disease progression in animal models and allow sustained levels of IL-1Ra in the joint. This project uses kinematic analysis to evaluate the capacity of scAAV-mediated delivery of equine-IL-1Ra to block the development of experimental arthritis in the equine joint. To evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of scAAV-eqIL-1Ra, an osteochondral fragment (OCF) model is used to simulate the pathobiology of OA. After a recovery period, scAAV-eqIL-1Ra and placebo (saline) are delivered to the experimental and control groups, respectively. Motion analysis is conducted weekly on a high speed treadmill for 12 weeks. Quantifiable changes in kinematics are measured using Lameness Locator® software.

It is expected that local, intra-articular treatment with scAAV-eqIL-1Ra will provide protection from the development of the articular pathologies associated with OA.  Relative to placebo controls, treated animals should have reduced pain and improved mobility, thus resulting in a reduction in lameness as analyzed by the Lameness Locator. Thus far, only 5/20 horses have completed the project.  The kinematic analysis of these 5 horses shows that the placebo improves lameness at a rate 2.5 times faster than treatment with scAAV-eqIL-1Ra. However, it is too early to use these preliminary results to determine the overall efficacy of the therapy. Ultimately the final data from this part of the study will be compiled with MRI, radiography, arthroscopy, and data generated from recovered fluids and tissue biopsies to provide a comprehensive description of the effects of the gene based treatment. Based on these efficacy models in horses, we can gain insight on the use of gene transfer on a human scale as a therapy for osteoarthritis.

Thursday
Mar282013

Transmyocardial therapeutic-delivery using real-time MRI guidance

Entry, Abstracts
Jeremy Maurer, Penn

Fig.1 (a) Needle catheter showing microcoils and extended nitinol injection needle. (b) Portions of the heart segmented on cine stack (TR/TE=3.4/1.54ms, voxel=1.3x1.3x5 mm3, FA 43o) are used to build 3d model of the left, right ventricle and infarcted region. (c) 3D model overlaid into real-time MR images is used to (d) navigate the catheter to pre- defined injection targets. Catheter model is built from MR images of active tracking coils. (e) Injection of iron-oxide laden therapeutic into myocardium (yellow arrow) monitored under real-time MRI. TR/TE=2.8/1.19 ms, voxel=1.9x1.9x5mm3, FA/tracking FA =50o/15o, 1.5-4 frames/s. (f, g) Pre- and post- injection MRI confirms injection of microbeads. TR /TE = 6.8/3.25ms, FA=30o, voxel =1.0×1.0×5.0mm3.Hegde S, Shea S, Pan L, Karmakar P, Barbot J, Kirchberg K, Vadakkumpadan F, Maurer J, Cook J, Trayanova N, Solaiyappan M, Johnston P, Kraitchman D. Transmyocardial Therapuetic-Delivery Using Real-Time MRI Guidance. SCMR 16th Annual Scientific Sessions, San Francisco, CA, January 31 - February 3, 2013. Poster.

 

Background: Catheter-based transmyocardial injection offers a minimally invasive method to deliver therapeutics to the heart. It is typically performed under X-ray fluoroscopic guidance, which suffers from poor demarcation of myocardial boundaries and an inability to assess myocardial viability. MRI-guided intramyocardial delivery of therapeutics at 3T offers the potential for more precise targeting of these therapies with superior tissue contrast.


Our group has been actively involved with microencapsulated stem cell therapy to improve cell retention and prevent stem cell rejection. However, most microencapsulated stem cell products are too large to be administered transmyocardially. We demonstrate here intramyocardial injection of a prototype single stem cell therapeutic into the myocardium of a normal swine using real-time MR guidance and a custom active injection catheter.

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