The treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) possesses numerous difficulties owing to the unclear etiology of the disease. This article overviews the drugs used in the treatment of IBD depending on the intensity of clinical symptoms (Canine Inflammatory Bowel Disease Activity Index and Canine Chronic Enterophaty Clinical Activity Index). Patients demonstrating mild symptoms of the disease are usually placed on an appropriate diet which may be combined with immunomodulative or probiotic treatment. In moderate progression of IBD, 5-aminosalicylic acid (mesalazine or olsalazine) derivatives may be administered. Patients showing severe symptoms of the disease are usually treated with immunosuppressive drugs, antibiotics and elimination diet. Since the immune system plays an important role in the pathogenesis of the disease, the advancements in biological therapy research will contribute to the progress in the treatment of canine and feline IBD in the coming years.

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The aim of the study was to evaluate the usefulness of immunomodulators in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in dogs. Twenty-eight dogs diagnosed with IBD took part in the study. The animals received a food containing extruded immunomodulators: β-1,3/1,6-D-glucan, β-hydroxy-β-methyl-butyrate (HMB) and levamisole for 42 days. Whole blood samples were analysed before and after therapy assessing changes in phagocyte activity (respiratory burst activity, RBA and potential killing activity, PKA), evaluation of proliferation response of mitogen-stimulated lymphocytes and serum gamma globulin levels, lysozyme activity, ceruloplasmin levels and interleukin activity (IL-6 and IL-10). In this experiment, β-1,3/1,6-D-glucan delivered the highest level of treatment efficacy by producing the quickest therapeutic effect, lowering Canine Inflammatory Bowel Disease Activity Index (CIBDAI) values to below 3, improving histopathological parameters, decreasing IL-6 levels, increasing IL-10 concentrations, and producing remission periods longer than six months. HMB and levamisole were also effective in lowering CIBDAI scores, but the abatement of clinical symptoms was slower and less pronounced in comparison with β-1,3/1,6-D-glucan. The results indicate that β-1,3/1,6-D-glucan can be useful in the treatment of canine IBD.

The aim of this study was to assess the degree of correlation between the intensity of clinical symptoms and the macroscopic and histopathological evaluation of the small intestinal mucous membrane in dogs. The results point to a statistically significant correlation between the values of the CIBDAI index and the histopathological assessment of the duodenum mucous membrane in patients with minor and moderate intensity of the disease. The lowest correlation coefficient was obtained for the indicator comparing macroscopic and histopathological evaluations. A positive correlation between the CIBDAI score and the histopathological index offers a base for applying it in the monitoring and treatment of mild, moderate and severe cases of canine inflammatory bowel disease.

Ultrasonography is a noninvasive diagnostic tool used to image size, shape, parenchyma and vascularization of various body organs. Unfortunately, the ultrasonographic image is characterized by a low contrast due to similar acoustic properties of the soft tissue. The Doppler mode provides information about blood flow, but is incapable of imaging small vessels and capillaries because of their low blood flow velocity (1 mm/s). However, a possibility to increase the effectiveness of ultrasonographic diagnostics exists, thanks to intravenous ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) consisted of gas microbubbles.The purpose of this review paper is to characterize specific imaging techniques necessary to conduct a contrast-enhanced liver examination and indications for CEUS as an alternative diagnostic method.Key words: ultrasonography, liver, canine, neoplasm, differential diagnostics Specific contrast-enhanced imaging techniquesThe basic B-mode (Haers and Saunders 2009) is not effective enough for ultrasound contrast agent detection in tissue, so it can not be used in contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS). All Doppler modalities are too sensitive to the microbubbles and this hypersensitivity causes artifacts such as "color blooming" (color Doppler) and "flash" (power Doppler), which decreases the usefulness of these modes. "Color blooming" artifact (Nilsson 2001) presents itself as extravascular color induced by reverberation and/or a high gain setting. The "flash" artifact appears when tissue or transducer movement disturbs the desired flow signal.Specific contrast-enhanced imaging techniques (Haers and Saunders 2009) are deprived of these Correspondence to: M. Wdowiak, e-mail: ktmtombstone@interia.pl defects and bring satisfying clinical results and artifact reduction. Many techniques have been created e.g. second harmonic imaging, pulse/phase inversion harmonic imaging, cadence-contrast pulse sequencing and power (amplitude) modulation.These specific imaging techniques take advantage of the nonlinear properties of UCAs which manifests in asymmetrical oscillation of the gas microbubbles under ultrasonic wave influence. The nonlinear properties of UCAs (Quaia 2007) increase contrast detection in tissues, thus increasing the contrast to tissue ratio and decreasing artifacts and noise.The principles of the second harmonic imaging are to create an image based on a frequency twice the value of the wave emitted by the transducer. The fundamental wave is filtered. If the fundamental wave is 2 MHz, then the second harmonic is 4 MHz, third harmonic 6 MHz and so on. Conventional USG sys-

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