Hematological and Pathological Changes in Acute Systemic Anaphylaxis in Calves: Effects of Pharmacological Agents

Calves were sensitized to horse serum in Freund's complete adjuvant and were subjected to acute systemic anaphylactic shock. Increased packed cell volume and potassium ion concentration together with severe neutropenia were observed to accompany the systemic hypotension. The hemoconcentration and hyperkalemia were not inhibited by antihistaminic or antiserotonin drugs, but were strongly inhibited by pretreatment of the calves with sodium meclofenamate and by disodium cromoglycate (DSCG) given simultaneously with diethylcarbamazine (DECC). In contrast there was no measurable diminution of the leukopenia by any inhibitor drug tested.

Pulmonary edema and congestion of the liver, intestine, spleen, and kidney accompanied anaphylaxis. Atelectasis and edema with thickening of alveolar septa, together with polymorphonuclear cell infiltration were recorded histologically in the lungs of calves subjected to anaphylaxis. Calves premedicated with sodium meclofenamate sustained slight pulmonary edema only, with no other obvious pathological changes. Pretreatment with DSGG and DECC reduced the edema, congestion, and histopathological damage, but offered less protection than sodium meclofenamate. Antihistaminic or antiserotonin drugs were ineffective in protecting against anaphylactic changes in calves.

     

A comparison of manual and electronic counting for total nucleated cell counts on synovial fluid from canine stifle joints.

Synovial fluids collected from the stifle joints of 20 physically normal adult dogs were subjected to cytological examination. A total nucleated cell count was performed on each sample using both an electronic cell counter and a hemocytometer. The mean of the total counts done with the electronic counter was significantly higher (1008 cells/microL) than that obtained manually with the hemocytometer (848 cells/microL).     

Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology in the Diagnosis of Canine Thyroid Carcinoma

In 11 dogs with thyroid carcinomas there was a good correlation between cytological results of fine needle aspiration biopsy and histological findings. The only difficulty with the aspiration technique was excessive contamination with blood of a third of the specimens.     

On transforming biological data to Gaussian form.

Much of the statistical analysis of biological data depends on the assumption that the data are Gaussian (or normal). Some well-known procedures which use this assumption are (i) t-tests (ii) analysis of variance (iii) regression estimation and their attendant tests. If the data are not Gaussian, one can use nonparametric statistical techniques, if they exist, but they often require larger amounts of data to obtain equally precise results (see for example Lumsden and Mullen (7) for a discussion of this with regard to reference value estimation). If the data are not Gaussian a fruitful approach to their analyses lies in trying to find a transformation which will render tham Gaussian. The data thus transformed to a Gaussian form, can be analyzed validly using standard statistical techniques. The process of finding a good transformation of the data has often been an arbitrary and ad hoc one. The purpose of this article is to look at a particular technique for attempting to render nonGaussian data Gaussian, and to illustrate its applicability and breadth of use.     

Volume of the Synovia in Certain Joint Cavities in the Horse

A method of determining the volumes of synovia in certain articular cavities in the horse is described. The method is based on the degree of dilution of human serum albumin labelled with ¹²⁵I that is injected into the joint. It is shown that uniform distribution of the injected substance is attained within 20 min post injection. The elimination of the labelled substance was found to follow the pattern of a single exponential function. The following volumes of synovia were determined (mean ± s) : hock, 39.8 ± 2.1 ml; radio-carpal, 12.6 ±1.5 ml; intercarpal, 14.9 ± 0.6 ml; foreleg fetlock joint, 12.5 ± 1.0 ml.     

箱型矮栏养猪好

自1960年来,已建造了数千幢部分或全部漏缝地板的肥育猪舍,但每头肥育猪的空间有限,通常为O.54~O.64平方米.在西欧进行的比较试验证明,当采用部分漏缝地板,且每头猪有o.70平方米空间时,技术效益较好.而如果猪能在箱型矮栏里休息,效果就更佳好动的肥育猪一般不怕贼风或低温的影响.试验表明,把饲喂和排粪区与躺卧区分开,是很有利的.躺卧区三面能够关闭,并可用顶盖覆盖,以创造     

Web-based, interactive simulation of an anesthesia machine

Gases are transparent and the piping layout in anesthesia machines is not obvious, making it hard to understand anesthesia machine function, potential failure modes, and recovery from faults. We experimented with an approach that simplified the layout of the anesthesia machine piping by removing extraneous details and making gases not only visible, but also color-coded. More than 15 anesthesia machine controls were represented by icons that a user can adjust by clicking on the icon with a pointing device and subsequently observing the effect of his/her intervention on anesthesia machine function in real time. We simulated two anesthesia machine failures and also supported non-English languages and non-US gas color codes. Further, we initiated an experiment in Web philanthropy by deliberately choosing to make the educational module accessible without charge and selected the Web as the preferred medium for dissemination of the Virtual Anesthesia Machine (VAM) viewable at http://www.anest.ufl.edu/vam . Originally designed for use in human anesthesiology, a significant percentage (about 30%) of the 54 000 international visitors, as tracked by an independent third-party Web traffic monitoring service, for the period 9/00–5/02, were from the veterinary field. VAM is being used as part of the curriculum in veterinary programs in the US and overseas and has been well received by the global anesthesia community (human and veterinary).     

Rapid staining techniques in cytopathology: a review and comparison of modified protocols for hematoxylin and eosin,Papanicolaou and Romanowsky stains

The objective of this study was to review and compare rapid protocols for fixation and staining of cytologic smears. We used fresh surgical specimens from dogs and horses to evaluate and modify, if necessary, previously described rapid staining protocols. Slides were wet-fixed, rehydrated or air-dried. Rapid Papanicolaou, hematoxylin and eosin (H&E), and Romanowsky stains were applied, including modification of Diff-Quick stain. The modified rapid staining protocols were simple to use and gave results within 5 minutes that were comparable to those obtained with traditional methods. Advantages of rehydrated vs wet-fixed smears included consistent preparations, a clean background, and equally good or superior nuclear detail.     

Sensitivity of routine tests for urine protein to hemoglobin

Increasing concentrations of canine hemoglobin were added to aliquots of urine and saline to determine the relative sensitivity of several hemoglobin and protein detection methods including commercial reagent strips and sulfosalicylic acid. The hemoglobin detection pads of the reagent strips were 50 times more sensitive than the protein detection pads, indicating the presence of hemoglobin at a concentration of 0.001 g/L whereas the protein pads did not react positively unless the hemoglobin concentration exceeded 0.05 g/L. The sulfosalicylic acid test was the least sensitive, detecting hemoglobin only at concentrations of 0.4 g/L or higher. These results were similar for hemoglobin added either in the form of lysed red blood cells, intact red blood cells or associated with plasma proteins in whole blood.

It was shown that a urine hemoglobin concentration eliciting less than the maximal score on the hemoglobin detection pad will not be detected as “protein” either with the commercial urinalysis strips or with sulfosalicylic acid. It was also seen that hemoglobin becomes visible as a red pigment when exceeding 0.3-0.5 g/L in a clear, light urine. It follows that a positive urine protein reading in the presence of a positive but less than maximal hemoglobin score or a protein reading exceeding 1.0 g/L in a nonpigmented urine indicates “true” proteinuria in excess of hemoglobin and plasma proteins associated with urinary tract hemorrhage.