Pulsed wave-Doppler ultrasonographic evaluation of the common carotid artery in the resting horse: physiologic data.

A pulsed wave-Doppler ultrasonographic evaluation of common carotid arterial blood flow was carried out on 63 healthy Italian Saddlebred horses. Vessel diameter and tracing morphology were evaluated and blood flow parameters (systolic, diastolic and mean velocity, acceleration and deceleration of the systolic wave, carotid pulse volume) were calculated and correlated with class variables (sex, age and body weight). On the basis of the presence of an incisure in the ascending branch of the systolic curve, subjects were divided in two groups: one with a bifid systolic curve and the other with a monophasic aspect. Correlations between: 1) diameter of the vessel and body weight and 2) carotid pulse volume and flow velocity (systolic, diastolic and mean) were found. A greater systolic pulse volume was found in male subjects, in subjects with greater body weight and in those which had a monophasic systolic wave.

Hypoglycemia in a dog with a leiomyoma of the gastric wall producing an insulin-like growth factor II-like peptide.

A 12-year-old mixed-breed male dog was referred to the Clinica Medica Veterinaria of Bologna University for recurrent episodes of seizures due to hypoglycemia with abnormally low plasma insulin levels (18 pmol/l). Resection of a large leiomyoma (780 g) of the gastric wall resulted in a permanent resolution of the hypoglycemic episodes. Insulin-like growth factors I and II (IGF-I and -II) were measured by RIA in serum before and after surgery and in tumor tissue. Results were compared to the serum concentration of 54 normal and to the tissue concentration observed in eight non-hypoglycemic dog gastric wall extracts. Before surgery, circulating immunoreactive IGF-I was 0.92 nmol/l, which is significantly lower than the control values (16.92 +/- 8.44 nmol/l, range 3.53-35.03), while IGF-II was 152 nmol/l, which is significantly higher than the control values (42.21 +/- 3.75, range 31.99-50.74). After surgery, IGF-I increased to 6.80 nmol/l while IGF-II decreased to 45.52 nmol/l. Tumor tissue IGF-II concentration was higher than normal (5.66 nmol/kg tissue as compared to a range in normal gastric wall tissue of 1.14-3.72 nmol/kg), while IGF-I was 0.08 nmol/kg tissue, which is close to the lowest normal value (range in controls, 0.08-1.18 nmol/kg). Partial characterization of IGF-II immunoreactivity extracted from tissue evidenced a molecular weight similar to that of mature IGF-II, thus excluding that peptide released by the tumor is a precursor molecule.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[Isolation of Cheyletiella yasguri Smiley, 1965 in a dog in Italy]. / Segnalazione in un cane, in Italia, di Cheyletiella yasguri Smiley, 1965.

Adult females of Cheyletiella yasguri Smiley, 1965 were found in a dog parasitized by Otodectes cynotis, whose owners exhibited skin eruptions. C. yasguri is reported for the first time in the dog in Italy; the pathogenicity of this mite for both the dog and man has already been established by other authors.