Laparoscopic partial pancreatectomy in a cat with exocrine pancreatic carcinoma.

Case summary: Minimally invasive surgery is an increasingly popular alternative to open surgery in veterinary medicine. Compared with traditional surgical approaches, laparoscopic pancreatectomy provides a less invasive approach and has several potential benefits, including improved visualization, reduced infection rate and decreased postoperative pain. Laparoscopic partial pancreatectomy has been described in humans, dogs and pigs but not cats. Pancreatectomy with or without chemotherapy is a treatment option for exocrine pancreatic carcinoma, a rare but malignant cancer in cats. We report the case of a 16-year-old male neutered domestic longhair cat diagnosed with exocrine pancreatic carcinoma that was treated with laparoscopic partial pancreatectomy, carboplatin and toceranib phosphate. A three-port technique using a 5 mm 0º telescope and bipolar vessel sealing device was performed to remove the entire left limb of the pancreas. No intra- or postoperative complications occurred, and the patient was discharged the following day. Forty days postoperatively, the patient received its first of five doses of carboplatin, which were given every 4-5 weeks over a period of 4 months. A maintenance protocol of toceranib phosphate was started after completion of carboplatin treatment. At the time of this article being submitted, the patient had survived for more than 221 days. Relevance and novel information: This is the first report of a laparoscopic partial pancreatectomy performed on a feline patient for pancreatic carcinoma.

Relationship between histological tumor margins and magnetic resonance imaging signal intensities in brain neoplasia of dogs.

BACKGROUND: Intracranial neoplasia is relatively common in dogs and stereotactic radiotherapy, surgical debulking, or both, are the most successful treatment approaches. A key component of treatment planning involves delineating tumor margin on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations. How MRI signal intensity alterations relate to histological tumor margins is unknown. OBJECTIVES: Directly compare histological brain sections to MRI sequence images and determine which sequence alteration best correlates with tumor margins. ANIMALS: Five dogs with glioma, 4 dogs with histiocytic sarcoma, and 3 dogs with meningioma. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study. Histological brain sections were registered to in vivo MRI scan images obtained within 7 days of necropsy. Margins of signal intensity alterations (T2-weighted, fluid-attenuating inversion recovery [FLAIR], T1-weighted and contrast enhancement) were compared directly to solid tumor and surgical margins identified on histology. Jacquard similarity metrics (JSM) and cross-sectional areas were calculated. RESULTS: In glioma cases, margins drawn around T2-weighted hyperintensity were most similar to surgical margins (JSM, 0.66 ± 0.17) when compared to other sequences. In both meningioma (JSM, 0.57 ± 0.21) and histiocytic sarcoma (JSM, 0.75 ± 0.11) margins of contrast enhancement were most similar to surgical margins. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Signal intensities correspond to tumor margins for different tumor types and facilitate surgical and radiation therapy planning using MRI images.

Stereotactic Cortical Atlas of the Domestic Canine Brain.

The domestic canine (canis familiaris) is a growing novel model for human neuroscientific research. Unlike rodents and primates, they demonstrate unique convergent sociocognitive skills with humans, are highly trainable and able to undergo non-invasive experimental procedures without restraint, including fMRI. In addition, the gyrencephalic structure of the canine brain is more similar to that of human than rodent models. The increasing use of dogs for non-invasive neuroscience studies has generating a need for a standard canine cortical atlas that provides common spatial referencing and cortical segmentation for advanced neuroimaging data processing and analysis. In this manuscript we create and make available a detailed MRI-based cortical atlas for the canine brain. This atlas includes a population template generated from 30 neurologically and clinically normal non-brachycephalic dogs, tissue segmentation maps and a cortical atlas generated from Jerzy Kreiner's myeloarchitectonic-based histology atlas. The provided cortical parcellation includes 234 priors from frontal, sensorimotor, parietal, temporal, occipital, cingular and subcortical regions. The atlas was validated using an additional canine cohort with variable cranial conformations. This comprehensive cortical atlas provides a reference standard for canine brain research and will improve and standardize processing and data analysis and interpretation in functional and structural MRI research.