A review of equine paranasal sinusitis: Medical and surgical treatments

Treatment of the different types of equine sinusitis, in particular those of chronic (>2 months' duration) sinusitis can be difficult, with many such cases not responding to more conservative measures such as rest, antibiotic therapy or sinus lavage. Such refractory cases require further clinical examinations and imaging as outlined in a companion article to achieve confirmation of the cause of the sinusitis. Many sinusitis cases will then require some form of surgical treatment that may include sinusotomy, dental extraction or intrasinus growth removal, that are increasingly being performed by less invasive techniques under standing sedation.     

Adaptation of thermal threshold analgesiometry for NSAIDs in cats: effects of ketoprofen

Nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are widely used to provide analgesia in clinical veterinary medicine, but there are few objective data evaluating this effect under controlled conditions in cats. Analgesia is more difficult to detect with acute analgesiometry after NSAIDs than after opioids. This investigation aimed to adapt the feline thermal analgesiometry method previously employed with opioids ( Dixon et al. 2002 ) for use with NSAIDs. Ketoprofen, a COX1 inhibitor licensed for cats was chosen. Six cats (2 neutered, four entire females, weighing 2.2–5.4 kg) were studied in two blinded randomized crossover trials each at least 2 weeks apart. Thermal thresholds (TT) were measured using the thermal threshold‐testing device previously developed for cats. A heater element and temperature sensor in a small probe were held at constant pressure against the cats' shaved thorax with an elasticized band. Skin temperature was recorded before each test, then the heater activated. When the cat responded by flinching, turning or jumping the heater was turned off and the temperature recorded. In the first study TT were measured following subcutaneous (SC) injection of ketoprofen (2 mg kg^?1) or a similar volume of saline. In the second study, prior to TT, and under isoflurane restraint, a mild inflammatory focus was produced at the probe site by five SC injections of 5 mg kaolin in 0.1 mL saline at each corner and in the center of a 1.5‐cm square. Saline or ketoprofen as in the first study were injected at the same time. Three baseline temperatures were recorded before any injections were given. Thermal thresholds were measured at 1 and 2 hours and then two‐hourly for 24 hours. Data were analysed using anova . Baseline skin temperature increased (37.3 ± 0.5–38.1 ± 0.8 °C) 24 hours after saline injection in study 2 (p < 0.05) but did not change after any other treatment. Thermal thresholds decreased (40.0 ± 1.3 to 39.1 ± 0.4 °C) 16 hours after ketoprofen in study 1 (p < 0.05) and increased (41.6 ± 1.5–44.8 ± 6.1 °C) 16–24 hours after ketoprofen in study 2 (p < 0.05), with no significant changes after saline. No obvious increase in sensitivity to thermal stimulation after kaolin injection was detected although obvious inflammation was present for up to 36 hours and the cats responded to digital pressure at the treated site. The method detected some effects of a COX1 selective NSAID and may be suitable for future NSAID studies in cats. However, a pressure stimulus ( Dixon et al. 2000) may prove better than thermal, and it requires investigation.     

Hemodynamic effects of sevoflurane in spontaneously breathing cats

Sevoflurane has recently been introduced in feline anesthesia. However, its cardiovascular effects have not, to our knowledge, been reported in this species. Six healthy cats, aged 1.81 ± 0.31 years (mean ± SEM) and weighing 3.47 ± 0.11 kg, were studied. Anesthesia was induced and maintained with sevoflurane in oxygen. Body temperature was maintained between 38.5 and 39.55 °C. After instrumentation, end‐tidal sevoflurane concentration was randomly set at 1.25, 1.5, and 1.75 times the individual minimum alveolar concentration (MAC), determined in a previous study, according to a Latin Square Design. Thirty minutes of stabilization was allowed after each change of concentration. ECG and heart rate, systemic and pulmonary arterial pressures, central venous pressure (CVP), and core body temperature were continuously monitored and recorded. Inspired and end‐tidal oxygen, carbon dioxide, and sevoflurane concentrations were measured using a Raman spectrometer, calibrated every 80 minutes with three calibration gases of known sevoflurane concentration (1, 2, and 5%). Moreover, at selected times, pulmonary artery occlusion pressure and cardiac output (thermodilution) were measured, and arterial and mixed venous blood samples were collected for pH and blood gas analysis, hemoglobin concentration, hemoglobin oxygen saturation, packed cell volume (PCV) and total protein determination, and lactate concentration measurement. Cardiac index (CI), stroke index (SI), systemic and pulmonary vascular resistance indices, rate‐pressure product, left and right ventricular stroke work indices (LVSWI and RVSWI, respectively), arterial and mixed venous oxygen contents, oxygen delivery, oxygen consumption, and oxygen utilization ratio were calculated. Data were analyzed by a Repeated Measure Latin Square Design followed by a Tukey's test for 2 × 2 comparisons. Arterial pH significantly decreased from 7.40 ± 0.05 to 7.29 ± 0.07 with the administration of increasing concentrations of sevoflurane. Similarly, LVSWI decreased from 3.72 ± 0.60 to 2.60 ± 0.46 g m^?2. Mean arterial pressure, PaO₂, mixed venous pH, CI, SI, and oxygen delivery tended to decrease dose‐dependently, whereas CVP, PaCO₂, Pv CO₂, PCV, and arterial and mixed venous hemoglobin concentrations tended to increase dose‐dependently with the administration of sevoflurane. However, these trends did not reach statistical significance, possibly because of the limited number of animals studied. Sevoflurane seemed to induce dose‐dependent cardiovascular depression in cats.     

Myophosphorylase deficiency (glycogen storage disease Type V) in a herd of Charolais cattle in New Zealand: Confirmation by PCR-RFLP testing

AIM: To describe a disease of muscle in Charolais calves and confirm the putative diagnosis of inherited myophosphorylase deficiency.

METHODS: Variously stained paraffin sections of muscle prepared from affected calves were used to describe the lesions. A polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) test was developed and applied to affected calves, their sires, dams and other individuals.

RESULTS: The lesions were those of rhabdomyolysis of skeletal muscles and sub-sarcolemmal spaces in normal fibres. The PCR-RFLP test confirmed the expected mutation for phosphorylase deficiency of Charolais cattle in two affected calves. In addition, sires, dams and other closely-related individuals of four affected calves tested as heterozygous for the mutation. Other apparently unrelated animals also tested as heterozygous.

CONCLUSIONS: The diagnosis of myophosphorylase deficiency was confirmed. The PCR-RFLP test is suitable for use in controlling this recessively-inherited disorder as it can diagnose heterozygous individuals that are otherwise clinically normal.     

Increase in chemokines CXCL10 and CCL2 in blood from pigs infected with high compared to low virulence African swine fever virus isolates

Modulation of the expression of chemokines and chemokine receptors in whole blood was compared following infection of pigs with high and low virulence isolates of African swine fever virus. Levels of mRNAs for CCL2, CCL3L1, CCL4, CXCL10, CCR1 and CCR5 were significantly increased in at least one time point following infection in two experiments and CCL5, CCR9 and CXCR4 mRNA were significantly increased in one of the experiments. The results showed that greatest fold increases in mRNAs for CXCL10 and CCL2 were observed following infection of pigs. CXCL10 mRNA was increased by up to 15 fold in infected compared to uninfected pigs. CXCL10 protein was also detected in serum from pigs infected with the high virulence Benin 97/1 isolate. Levels of CCL2 mRNA were increased in pigs infected with high virulence Benin 97/1 isolate compared to low virulence OURT88/3 isolate and this correlated with an increase of greater than 30 fold in levels of CCL2 protein detected in serum from pigs infected with this isolate. An increase in overall chemotaxis active compounds in defibrinated plasma samples from Benin 97/1 infected pigs was observed at 3 days post-infection (dpi) and a decrease by 7 dpi as measured by chemotaxis assay using normal pig leucocytes in vitro. Increased levels of CXCL10 may either contribute to the activation of lymphocyte priming toward the Th1 phenotype or induction of T lymphocyte apoptosis. Increased levels of CCL2, a chemoattractant for macrophages, may result in increased recruitment of monocytes from bone marrow thus increasing the pool of cells susceptible to infection.