Staging of porcine embryos: Comparison of Standard Event System-based statistical clusters with a Carnegie-based staging system.

BACKGROUND: Methods to compare events defined as newly occurring characters in development has advanced vertebrate developmental research but events are not easily extrapolated into traditional staging systems used in biomedical research. RESULTS: First, we scored 95 porcine embryos in the age range of 15 to 33 days post conception by stereomicroscopy using to a slightly modified version of the Standard Event System (SES). Subsequent statistical clustering allowed the embryos to be grouped into 15 clusters. Staging of the same embryos in a way that generally follow the description of external features of human embryos in the Carnegie stages 10 to 23 allowed us to describe 14 stages of porcine embryonic development that correlate to the Carnegie stages of human development with minor species differences. When arranged by average age, the statistic clusters had a distribution that correlated well with the stages produced by the Carnegie-based staging system. CONCLUSIONS: Statistical analysis of developmental events allow grouping of porcine embryos into clusters that can be extrapolated into a Carnegie-based staging system, thus serving the dual purpose of facilitating the use of the pig as a biomedical model animal and providing data for integrating porcine developmental events into a phylogenetic context.

Blood glucose and subcutaneous continuous glucose monitoring in critically ill horses: A pilot study.

This pilot prospective study reports the feasibility, management and cost of the use of a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system in critically ill adult horses and foals. We compared the glucose measurements obtained by the CGM device with blood glucose (BG) concentrations. Neonatal foals (0-2 weeks of age) and adult horses (> 1 year old) admitted in the period of March-May 2016 with clinical and laboratory parameters compatible with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) were included. Glucose concentration was monitored every 4 hours on blood samples with a point-of-care (POC) glucometer and with a blood gas analyzer. A CGM system was also placed on six adults and four foals but recordings were successfully obtained only in four adults and one foal. Glucose concentrations corresponded fairly well between BG and CGM, however, there appeared to be a lag time for interstitial glucose levels. Fluctuations of glucose in the interstitial fluid did not always follow the same trend as BG. CGM identified peaks and drops that would have been missed with conventional glucose monitoring. The use of CGM system is feasible in ill horses and may provide clinically relevant information on glucose levels, but there are several challenges that need to be resolved for the system to gain more widespread usability.