[Myxosarcoma in the cervical region in a teddy bear hamster (Mesocricetus auratus)]. / Myxosarkom in der Halsregion eines Teddy-Hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus).

This case report describes a rare case of a myxosarcoma in a 1-year-old teddy bear hamster presenting with a mass in the cervical region. The fine-needle aspiration cytology revealed high numbers of pleomorphic spindle-shaped cells found in a viscous mucinous background. The presumptive cytological diagnosis was malignant spindle cell neoplasia based on marked criteria of malignancy of the mesenchymal cell population. The abundant matrix in the background was suggestive of a myxosarcoma. The hamster died during surgery and a necropsy was performed. Histopathology was in complete agreement with the cytological report. Immunohistochemistry revealed the tumour to be vimentin positive with alcian-blue positive matrix and confirmed the presumptive diagnosis of a myxosarcoma. This case shows that fine-needle aspiration cytology can be utilized as a minimally invasive diagnostic tool in small mammals to classify mass lesions. However, so far little is known about the biological behaviour of myxosarcoma in the hamster as case descriptions are rare.

Evaluation of a novel moving threshold gating strategy for assessment of reticulated platelets in dogs using the ADVIA 2120 analyzer.

BACKGROUND: A novel method using a moving threshold (r-PLTmt) to determine canine r-PLTs (reticulated platelets) has been introduced for ADVIA 2120 software v6.11.7. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to evaluate absolute (ar-PLTmt) and percent (%r-PLTmt) prior to and after visual inspection of scattergrams (ar-PLTmtv, %rPLTmtv) compared with flow cytometry (flow) and to determine reference intervals (RIs) in 120 dogs. METHODS: For method comparison, 42 blood samples of healthy and thrombocytopenic dogs were included. Calculation of Spearman's rho, Bland-Altman, and Passing-Bablok analysis was performed. Coefficients of variation (CVs) were determined for three concentration levels. RESULTS: Moderate correlations between %r-PLTmt and %r-PLTmtv (rs 0.75-0.76) were seen compared with flow cytometry. The CV for medium %r-PLTs counts assessed with flow cytometry was 12.9%. Comparable CVs were obtained for ar-PLTmt (14.4%) and %r-PLTmt (15.7%), and ar-PLTmtv and %r-PLTmtv (10.9% and 12.9%, respectively). At low and high concentration levels, CVs for % and absolute r-PLTmt/rPLTmtv ranged between 23%-30% and 15%-20%. In patients with microcytic hypochromic erythrocytes, CVs for ar-PLTmt and %r-PLTmt were 36%-66%. Visual inspection of scattergrams resulted in a marked decrease in CV ranging between 15% and 20%. A proportional bias of 10.8% between %r-PLTmt and flow cytometry became lower (9.7%) after visual validation of scattergrams. Passing-Bablok analysis showed proportional and constant error. RIs for r-PLTmt and r-PLTmtv were 0.2%-3.8% and 0.6-10.2 × 109 /L and 0.3%-4.5% and 1.1-10.3 × 109 /L, respectively. Median values for %r-PLTmtv were higher in young adults (≤2 years) than in older dogs (P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: r-PLTmt and r-PLTmtv were moderately correlated with flow cytometry. Visual inspection of scattergrams is recommended.

Cytologic scoring of equine exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage: Performance of human experts and a deep learning-based algorithm.

Exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH) is a relevant respiratory disease in sport horses, which can be diagnosed by examination of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) cells using the total hemosiderin score (THS). The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and reproducibility of annotators and to validate a deep learning-based algorithm for the THS. Digitized cytological specimens stained for iron were prepared from 52 equine BALF samples. Ten annotators produced a THS for each slide according to published methods. The reference methods for comparing annotator's and algorithmic performance included a ground truth dataset, the mean annotators' THSs, and chemical iron measurements. Results of the study showed that annotators had marked interobserver variability of the THS, which was mostly due to a systematic error between annotators in grading the intracytoplasmatic hemosiderin content of individual macrophages. Regarding overall measurement error between the annotators, 87.7% of the variance could be reduced by using standardized grades based on the ground truth. The algorithm was highly consistent with the ground truth in assigning hemosiderin grades. Compared with the ground truth THS, annotators had an accuracy of diagnosing EIPH (THS of < or ≥ 75) of 75.7%, whereas, the algorithm had an accuracy of 92.3% with no relevant differences in correlation with chemical iron measurements. The results show that deep learning-based algorithms are useful for improving reproducibility and routine applicability of the THS. For THS by experts, a diagnostic uncertainty interval of 40 to 110 is proposed. THSs within this interval have insufficient reproducibility regarding the EIPH diagnosis.

Analytical performance and method comparison of a quantitative point-of-care immunoassay for measurement of bile acids in cats and dogs.

Point-of-care analyzers (POCAs) for quantitative assessment of bile acids (BAs) are scarce in veterinary medicine. We evaluated the Fuji Dri-Chem Immuno AU10V analyzer and v-BA test kit (Fujifilm) for detection of feline and canine total serum BA concentration. Results were compared with a 5th-generation assay as reference method and a 3rd-generation assay, both run on a bench-top analyzer. Analytical performance was assessed at 3 different concentration ranges, and with interferences. For method comparison, samples of 60 healthy and diseased cats and 64 dogs were included. Linearity was demonstrated for a BA concentration up to 130 µmol/L in cats (r = 0.99) and 110 µmol/L in dogs (r = 0.99). The analyzer showed high precision near the lower limit of quantification of 2 µmol/L reported by the manufacturer. Intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation were < 5% for both species and all concentrations. Interferences were observed for bilirubin (800 mg/L) and lipid (4 g/L). There was excellent correlation with the reference method for feline (rs = 0.98) and canine samples (rs = 0.97), with proportional biases of 6.7% and -1.3%, respectively. However, a large bias (44.1%) was noted when the POCA was compared to the 3rd-generation assay. Total observed error was less than total allowable error at the 3 concentrations. The POCA reliably detected feline and canine BA in clinically relevant concentrations.