Estudo retrospectivo de lesões hepáticas crônicas em cães

Abstract

The necropsy reports of 4899 dogs necropsied at the Veterinary Pathology Laboratory of the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria from 1964 to 2003 were reviewed in search of chronic hepatic lesions. Three hundred and six lesions (6,2%) were found and were classified as inflammatory (4,2%), degenerative (26,8%), circulatory (23,2%) and neoplastic (45,8%). Neoplasms were constituted the most common pathology and among them primary tumors were the most prevalent (43,8%). Colangiocarcinoma was the most common primary tumor (50,0%), lymphoma was the most common among multicentric tumors (75,0%) and leukemia and mammary carcinoma were the most prevalent among metastatic tumors (20%). Nodular hyperplasia was found in 44 (31,4%) dogs. Excluding tumors, hepatic cirrhosis was the most important disease of the dogs (26,1%). The clinical signs reported were ascites (48,7%) and icterus (23,7%). In all dogs with cirrhosis when ALT was evaluated, it was elevated. When the ascitic fluid was evaluated in the cirrhotic dogs, it was always pure transudate. In 14 cirrhotic dogs histological changes were reviewed and the intensity of fibrosis was categorized as marked (group 1), moderate (group 2) and mild (group 3). Most of the dogs (57,2%) had mild fibrosis. It was not found a correlation between the extension of fibrosis and the intensity of the clinical signs. Other histological changes in decreasing order of frequency were fatty change (71,4%), inflammation (71,4%), hemosiderosis (64,3%), bile duct proliferation (50,0%), cholestasis (42,8%), and coagulative necrosis (35,7%). Nutmeg liver due to congestive heart failure was found in 69 (22,5%) dogs. When the ascitic fluid of some of the latter dogs was evaluated, it consisted of a modified transudate