Comparison of methods to assess dog owners' therapeutic compliance

Objective To compare different methods for assessing the compliance of veterinary clients administering medication to their dogs.
Procedure Thirty-one owners whose dogs were prescribed amoxycillin-clavulanate, twice and thrice daily, for a duration of five to seven days were recruited from three Sydney veterinary hospitals. Compliance was assessed by electronic monitoring devices, return medication counts, client self-reports and veterinarians' estimation of likely compliance.
Results Electronic monitoring showed owners administered on average 84% (range 7 to 104%) of prescribed medication to their dogs. Both return medication counts and client self-reports tended to overestimate therapeutic compliance when compared with electronic monitoring. When questioned, the majority of owners (71%) claimed perfect compliance with the prescribed regimen. No correlation was found between veterinarians' estimates of owner compliance and that assessed electronically.
Conclusion Electronic monitoring provided valuable information on dose timing and variation, but proved costly and difficult to employ in veterinary practice. Simplicity and low cost of return medication counts makes this method attractive for use in veterinary compliance studies. Client self-reports reliably detected some noncompliers and permitted identification of individual problems or errors. For practical purposes a combination of return medication counts and client self-reports may have merit in future veterinary compliance studies.     

Development of a murine ocular posterior segment explant culture for the study of intravitreous vector delivery

The objective of this study was to develop a murine retinal/choroidal/scleral explant culture system to facilitate the intravitreous delivery of vectors. Posterior segment explants from adult mice of 2 different age groups (4 wk and 15 wk) were cultured in serum-free medium for variable time periods. Tissue viability was assessed by gross morphology, cell survival quantification, activated caspase-3 expression, and immunohistochemistry. To model ocular gene therapy, explants were exposed to varying transducing units of a lentiviral vector expressing the gene for green fluorescent protein for 48 h. Explant retinal cells remained viable for approximately 1 wk, although the ganglion cell layer developed apoptosis between 4 and 7 d. Following vector infusion into the posterior segment cups, viral transduction was noted in multiple retinal layers in both age groups. An age of donor mouse influence was noted and older mice did not transduce as well as younger mice. This explant offers an easily managed posterior segment ocular culture with minimum disturbance of the tissue, and may be useful for investigating methods of enhancing retinal gene therapy under controlled conditions.     

Comparison of Antral and Preantral Ovarian Follicle Populations Between Bos indicus and Bos indicus‐taurus Cows with High or Low Antral Follicles Counts

The objective was to compare populations of antral and pre‐antral ovarian follicles in Bos indicus and Bos indicus‐taurus cows with high and low antral follicle counts. Nelore (Bos indicus, n = 20) and Nelore X Angus (1/2 Bos indicus‐taurus, n = 20) cows were subjected to follicular aspiration without regard to the stage of their oestrous cycle (day of aspiration = D0) to remove all follicles ≥3 mm and induce growth of a new follicular wave. Ovaries were examined by ultrasonography on D4, D19, D34, D49 and D64, and antral follicles ≥3 mm were counted. Thereafter, cows were assigned to one of two groups: high or low antral follicular count (AFC, ≥30 and ≤15 antral follicles, respectively). After D64, ovaries were collected after slaughter and processed for histological evaluation. There was high repeatability in the numbers of antral follicles for all groups (range 0.77–0.96). The mean (±SD) numbers of antral follicles were 35 ± 9 (Bos indicus) and 38 ± 6 (Bos indicus‐taurus) for the high AFC group and 10 ± 3 (Bos indicus) and 12 ± 2 (Bos indicus‐taurus) follicles for the low AFC. The mean number of preantral follicles in the ovaries of Bos indicus‐taurus cows with high AFC (116 226 ± 83 156 follicles) was greater (p < 0.05) than that of Bos indicus cows (63 032 ± 58 705 follicles) with high AFC. However, there was no significant correlation between numbers of antral and preantral follicles.     

MALDI‐MS Lipid Profiles of Oocytes Recovered by Ovum Pickup from Bos indicus and 1/2 indicus × taurus with High vs Low Oocyte Yields

The aim of the present study was to compare the lipid profile in oocytes of indicus and 1/2 indicus × taurus cows with high and low antral follicle count (AFC)/oocyte yields. After an OPU procedure (D0), antral follicles ≥3 mm were counted by ultrasonography (D4, 19, 34, 49, 64), and cows were assigned to groups with either high AFC (≥30 follicles; indicus, NH group; 1/2 indicus × taurus, AH group) or low AFC (≤15 antral follicles; indicus, NL group; 1/2 indicus × taurus, AL group). The lipid profiles of the oocytes were determined by MALDI‐MS. For GI, GII and GIII oocytes, the indicus samples tend to cluster separately from the 1/2 indicus × taurus samples. The lipid species [PC (P‐38:5) + H]⁺ and/or [PC (P‐36:2) + Na]⁺, [PC (38:2) + H]⁺, [PC (38:5) + Na]⁺ and [TAG (60:8) + NH⁴]⁺ were more abundant in indicus (NH and NL groups) than 1/2 indicus × taurus. The higher lipid content in the indicus oocytes likely reflects differences in the rate of lipid metabolism and may contribute to oocyte competence and embryo development.     

Owner compliance with short term antimicrobial medication in dogs

Summary: The degree to which dog owners complied with instructions to administer a 5 to 10 day course of antimicrobial medication to their pets was assessed using microprocessor based monitoring devices. Twenty two clients gave an average of 84% of prescribed doses of amoxycillin-clavulanate. No difference was found between twice and thrice daily dosing regimens in the overall percentage of prescribed doses given. However, timing of doses was far from ideal in many cases and only 34% of doses were given within the designated optimum time period. Adherence to desired dosing intervals tended to be better with twice daily than with thrice daily dosing, although the difference was statistically insignificant.