The relationship between right duct lymph flow and extravascular lung water in dogs given alpha-naphthylthiourea.

The relationship between right duct lymph flow and extravascular lung water was studied in 3 normal dogs and 15 dogs with pulmonary edema induced by alpha-naphthylthiourea (ANTU). Right duct lymph was collected in a pouch created by ligating jugular, subclavian, and brachiocephalic veins. Extravascular lung water was measured in vivo by double indicator dilution and post-mortem by weighting lungs before and after drying. Cardiac output, pulmonary artery and pulmonary artery wedge pressures, and the concentration of protein and electrolytes in plasma and right duct lymph were determined. Eight lungs were examined by light and electron microscopy. There was a direct relationship between right duct lymph flow (RDLF in milliters per hour per gram dry lung) and extravascular lung water (Qwl in milliliters per gram dry lung) which was best described by the equation RDLF=0.75-0.26 Qwl+0.03 (Qwl).2 Dogs with severe ANTU-induced edema had extensive lung capillary endothelial destruction but only mild interstitial swelling and no visible damage to type I alveolar epithelial cells. Cardiac output, pulmonary artery and wedge pressures, and protein and electrolyte concentrations did not correlate with either extravascular water or right duct flow. Thus, in ANTU-induced pulmonary edema right duct lymph flow was directly related to extravascular lung water with the highest flows occurring with severe edema. The absence of a rapid increase in lymph flow with small increases in extravascular water may be due to early sequestration of fluid in the alveolar space. Hemodynamic changes did not account for changes in lung water or lymph flow. The pulmonary interstitial factors relating increased extravascular water to lymph drainage remain to be determined.

Development and application of a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of serum antibodies to porcine circovirus type 2.

We report the development of a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (c-ELISA) for the detection of antibodies to porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2), the agent associated with the recently described postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome in pigs. At present, no method has been published describing a c-ELISA for the detection of antibodies to PCV2, and currently employed tests are impractical for use in some laboratories. The assay described here uses a cell culture isolate of porcine circovirus type 2 as antigen and a PCV2-specific monoclonal antibody as the competing reagent. Evaluation of the ELISA was performed by comparison with results obtained using an indirect immunofluorescent test on 484 sera from pig herds in the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and the USA and serial bleeds from pigs experimentally infected with porcine circoviruses. The sensitivity and specificity of the ELISA were determined as 99.58% and 97.14%, respectively, at 2 standard deviations (SD) from the mean or 95.81% and 100% at 3 SD from the mean. Using this ELISA, a serologic survey of 461 sera collected from commercial pig herds in Northern Ireland between 1973 and 1999 was undertaken. Analysis of the results of this survey demonstrated that the number of ELISA-positive sera detected in an individual year during this period ranged from 55% to 100%. This c-ELISA has applications for large-scale rapid diagnosis of PCV2 infection in pig populations worldwide and for immunoscreening of sera from other species for antibodies to PCV2.

Palmitate incorporation in the lungs of dogs with granulomatous disease.

Moderate hypoxia did not influence the pulmonary incorporation of an intravenous dose of [1-14C]palmitate either in dogs with experimentally produced granulomatous disease or in normal controls. The lung weight in the diseased animals, was, on the average, double that of the controls. There was a proportionate increase in uptake of the radioactive label at 1 hr after infusion in the diseased lungs, hence the specific activity of labeled palmitate (counts per minute per gram of phospholipid) was no different in the two groups. Moreover, half the radioactivity of the phospholipids was recovered in palmitate separated from the phosphatidyl choline fraction in both diseased and normal lungs. Anatomic studies demonstrated increased numbers of Type II pneumocytes lining all alveolar air spaces in the diseased lung. Autoradiographic studies indicated the presence of labeled palmitate in the Type II cells, but not in the inflammatory cells of the granulomata. We conclude that the increased palmitate uptake in this disease is accounted for by the metabolic activity of the Type II pneumocytes.