What is your diagnosis? Fluid aspirated from an abdominal mass in a dog

Abstract

A 4-year-old female spayed Boxer dog was presented to a veterinary hospital in southern Ontario for an annual health visit. The dog had been clinically well and the owner reported no concerns. On routine physical exam, palpation disclosed a large mass in the abdomen. Radiographs showed the mass to be approximately 25 9 20 cm, and located mostly in the cranial abdomen. Ultrasound of the mass confirmed radiographic size and location, and indicated that the mass appeared to be multilobulated and fluid filled. A CBC and serum biochemistry analysis revealed no abnormalities. Laparotomy was performed and revealed a large, oval, smooth mass (20 9 10 cm), which was attached to 2 other masses each about 10 9 10 cm in size. The smaller masses were also attached to the liver. The omentum had multiple variably sized cysts throughout. A fine-needle aspirate of the largest mass yielded turbid and mildly hemorrhagic fluid. Several of the omental masses were removed and fixed in formalin. Analysis of the aspirated fluid showed a total nucleated cell count of 133 9 10 9 /L and refractometric protein concentration of 72 g/L. Direct and cytocentrifuged preparations of the abdominal mass fluid were prepared (Figures 1 and 2). Figure 1. Sediment smear of an aspirate from an abdominal mass from a dog. Wright, 2009 magnification.Figure 2. Sediment smear of an aspirate from an abdominal mass from a dog showing nonstaining, variably sized, refractile material. Wright, 10009 magnification.

Clinical presentation, diagnosis, therapy and outcome of alveolar echinococcosis in dogs

“…Material was gained from hepatic parenchyma (n=5), intralesional fluid (n=7) and/or free peritoneal fluid (n=2). Findings were consistent with AE in 10 dogs, based on the presence of acellular larval wall fragments and calcareous corpuscles (Oscos-Snowball and others 2015). In two dogs, cytology of parenchymal hepatic samples was not suggestive of AE, revealing only pyogranulomatous inflammation in one case and considered non-diagnostic due to poor cellularity in the other case.…”

“…Dogs were included if they had a positive serology against E. multilocularis Em2-antigen (Staebler and others 2006) and/or a positive E. multilocularis -specific PCR (Diebold-Berger and others 1997) and/or a positive microscopic identification on cytology or histopathology (Oscos-Snowball and others 2015). …”

Medicamenteuze behandeling van een Echinococcus multilocularis-infectie die een lokaal agressieve cavitaire tumor met longmetastasen nabootst bij een hond

“…Although uncommon, cases of hepatic metacestode infections in domestic dogs have been described in Switzerland (Haller et al, 1998 ;Scharf et al, 2004;Heier et al, 2007;Pezelet et al, 2013;Gendron et al, 2015), Germany (Geisel et al, 1990;Gwada et al, 2018), Belgium (Caron et al, 2017), Slovakia (Antolova et al, 2018), and Canada (Peregrine et al, 2012;Oscos-Snowball et al, 2015). In dogs, in which alveolar echinococcosis develop within the abdominal cavity (Geigy et al, 2013;Oscos-Snowball et al, 2015;Gwada et al, 2018), the most common clinical features include progressive abdominal enlargement, intermittent inappetence and vomiting. Imaging modalities are important steps in the diagnosis of alveolar echinococcosis, with abdominal radiography and ultrasonography being most commonly reported, while abdominal CT has only been described in two cases (Scharf et al, 2004;Gendron et al, 2015).…”

What is your diagnosis? Generalized nodular change in a canine liver

“…Previous cases of alveolar echinococcosis highlighted the cytologic features of metacestode membranes from a liver cyst and an abdominal effusion in dogs infected with echinococcosis . Of interest in this case were the E multilocularis metacestode protoscolices in cytologic preparations of the dog's liver cyst.…”

“…Identification of species can be achieved by assessing the metacestode ultrastructure on histologic sections, by measuring protoscolex hooks, and by performing PCR to detect parasite DNA on cytologic or tissue samples [4][5][6]. Previous cases of alveolar echinococcosis highlighted the cytologic features of metacestode membranes from a liver cyst and an abdominal effusion in dogs infected with echinococcosis 7,8. Of interest in this case were the E multilocularis metacestode protoscolices in cytologic preparations of the dog's liver cyst.…”