Incidence of perianaesthetic complications experienced during feline bronchoscopy: a retrospective study.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to report the incidence of anaesthetic complications associated with feline bronchoscopy. METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis of anaesthetic records and electronic case logs of feline bronchoscopies at two university hospitals (centres B and L) between January 2013 and December 2015. A two-tailed Fisher's exact test was used for comparison of variables and outcomes between centres. RESULTS: Seventy-nine cases were included. Desaturation (SpO2 <90%) was the most frequently encountered complication, reported in 24 cats (30.3%); centre B reported significantly less desaturation than centre L (22.4% vs 52.4%; P = 0.014). The use of an endotracheal tube or laryngeal mask airway resulted in a lower incidence of desaturation (22.9% vs 22.2%) than the use of a tracheal catheter through which oxygen was insufflated (48.0%). The latter method was associated with an increased incidence of desaturation (P = 0.034). Patients to which terbutaline was administered had a lower incidence of desaturation (27.5%) than those that did not receive it (35.7%), although this was not statistically significant (P = 0.46). Airway management method and the use of terbutaline differed significantly between centres, as did the profile of complications. Pneumothorax was encountered in two cats (2.5%) and cardiac arrest resulting in the death in one of these cats (1.3%). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Desaturation is a frequently encountered complication during and after bronchoscopy. Airway management method and the use and timing of terbutaline warrant prospective evaluation for their role in decreasing the incidence of desaturation. Bronchoscopy is a high-risk procedure with frequent requirement for post-procedure oxygen supplementation. Pneumothorax and cardiac arrest are potential complications.

Ena drives invasive macrophage migration in Drosophila embryos.

It is seldom the primary tumour that proves fatal in cancer, with metastasis the fundamental pathological process for disease progression. Upregulation of Mena, a member of the evolutionarily conserved Ena/VASP family of actin cytoskeletal regulators, promotes metastasis and invasive motility of breast cancer cells in vivo. To complement in vitro studies of Ena/VASP function in fibroblasts, we manipulated levels of Ena, the Drosophila homologue of Mena, in migrating embryonic macrophages (haemocytes). Consistent with data from fibroblasts in vitro, Ena localises to regions of actin dynamics within migrating haemocytes, stimulates lamellipodial dynamics and positively regulates the number and length of filopodia. However, whereas Ena overexpression in fibroblasts reduces migration speeds, overexpressing Ena in haemocytes leads to a dramatic increase in migration speeds, more closely resembling the increased motility of breast cancer cells that overexpress Mena. We provide evidence that this key difference is due to spatial constraints imposed on cells within the three-dimensional environment of the embryo; this might explain how Mena can be used to promote aggressive migratory behaviour during cancer progression.