Portal hypertension in a dog due to circumscribed fibrosis of the wall of the extrahepatic portal vein.

A two-and-a-half-year-old German shepherd dog with ascites and a high concentration of blood ammonia was investigated. Sonographically, its liver was normal but the portal vein was dilated and the flow of blood within it was slow. A liver biopsy showed that the liver was normal, and did not reveal any possible cause of portal hypertension or ascites. Postmortem, the cranial part of the portal vein was dilated with a cross-striped internal surface, but the caudal part looked normal; there was a stenotic ring between the normal and dilated parts. Histology of the dilated segment revealed marked hypertrophy of both the internal circular and the external longitudinal smooth muscle layers. At the site of the stenosis, the longitudinal muscular layer was replaced by connective tissue. Circumscribed fibrosis in the wall of the portal vein was responsible for the stenosis and the subsequent prehepatic portal hypertension. The cross-striped pattern in the dilated part of the vein was the result of hypertrophy of the inner circular smooth muscle layer.

Doppler ultrasonographic diagnosis and anatomy of congenital intrahepatic arterioportal fistula in a puppy.

A dilated, tortuous blood vessel was identified sonographically in the right medial liver lobe in a puppy with severe ascites. This vessel was thought to represent the dilated right medial portal vein branch. Using pulsed wave Doppler ultrasonography, retrograde, abnormally pulsatile flow was detected in both the dilated right medial portal vein branch and the main portal vein. The right medial liver lobe was surgically resected then fixed in formalin. Silicon rubber was injected and outlined the connection between the portal vein and hepatic artery.

[Vulvar discharge before parturition and a risk factor for postpartum diseases of the sow and for early postnatal piglet losses]. / Scheidenausfluss ante partum als Risikofaktor für postpartale Erkrankungen der Sau und frühpostnatale Ferkelverluste.

Periparturient biotechniques with prednisolon are widely used in Europe for the prevention of perinatal losses in intensive pig production. However, the routinely applied 100 mg prednisolon on the 113th day of pregnancy to the sow are not without controversy. In four intensive pig production units altogether 2143 sows treated thus were subjected to the evaluation of the following parameters: A: the presence or absence of vulvar discharge at the 110th day of pregnancy B: postparturient disease of the sow C: early postnatal piglet losses The results showed that the sows having prepartal vulvar discharge developed after prednisolon application significantly (p < 0.001) higher incidence of postparturient disease (20.5% versus 9.3%) when compared to the sows having no prepartal vulvar discharge. The early postnatal losses were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in sows having prepartal vulvar discharge and consecutive postparturient disease when compared to the healthy sows. It is the opinion of the authors that prepartal biotechnique with prednisolon (in order to reduce perinatal losses) in sows showing the signs of prepartal vulvar discharge is contraindicated.

[Contribution to therapy of the "prostate syndrome" in aged dogs]. / Beitrag zur Therapie des "Prostata-Syndrome" bei älteren Rüden.

The treatment of the "prostate syndrome" is a great challenge for the practicing veterinarian. In the present paper the therapeutic approach of this syndrome will be evaluated. 58 older dogs showing this syndrome were castrated and received thereafter oral antibiotic therapy. For further additional treatment the dogs were assigned to two groups. The groups were treated as follows: Group one: 41 dogs were treated with retard Gestagen and Flumethason infiltrated into the prostate gland tissue. Group two: 17 dogs were treated with a single subcutaneously applied Gestagen injection. The success of the therapy was judged by decrease the size of the prostate gland to normal size. The first evaluation took place after 2 weeks and the second one after a year following castration and treatment. At the time of the first judgement 95.1% of the dogs in the group one and 70.6% in the group two showed normal prostate gland size. At the time of the second examination, a year after the treatment still 82.8% of the dogs in the group one and only 52.8% in the group two showed normal prostate gland size. These results suggest that the infiltration of the enlarged prostate gland with retard acting Gestagen and Flumethason results in long lasting diminishing of size of the diseased gland.

A mouse monoclonal antibody reacting with swine leukocytes: a flow cytometrical and immunohistochemical study.

A mouse monoclonal antibody (Mab) was prepared by immunization of Balb/c mice with porcine peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Its reactivity was studied by flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry. By flow cytometry 75-90% of blood lymphocytes and 93-97% of blood granulocytes showed positivity, while all monocytes were labelled. The specificity of the Mab was investigated further by immunohistochemical methods using different tissues of swine. Both cortical and medullary thymocytes strongly expressed the target antigen of Mab 335-2. Intensive staining of T cell dependent areas in the lymph nodes, spleen and tonsils was also observed. Many positive cells occurred in the red pulp of the spleen. In the non-lymphoid tissues no organ-specific staining was observed, except for the connective tissue which contained scattered positive cells. Kupffer's cells and some glial cells reacted with this Mab. These results suggest that this novel Mab recognizes a major antigen present on immature and mature T cells; however, subpopulations of myeloid cells (neutrophils, monocytes, and some types of macrophages) share this antigen.

Comparative study of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)--immunoreactivity in the rat and monkey cerebellum.

Vibratome sections of perfusion-fixed rat and monkey cerebella were incubated with an antiserum to glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). Immunolabelled elements showed in both species a principally similar distribution but the presence of long, transverse branches of Bergmann fibres was found to be characteristic to the monkey cerebellum. It is concluded that current methods enable fine interspecies differences of GFAP-localization to be demonstrated. This bears a relevance to the use of GFAP-immunostaining as a diagnostic tool in neuropathology.