Cristina Alice Vulpe’s research while affiliated with University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine and other places

Dogs may suffer from various formations (in spleen) caused by hyperplasia phenomenons, out of which 2/3 are of a malignant nature. The hemangiosarcoma is the most recurrent one, with a high tendency towards malignancy. The imaging examination is primordial in setting a diagnosis, but the defining one is the one implying pathological anatomy. The authors set a diagnosis using imaging methods on the spleen and on various metastatic processes; the etiology was established using a pathological anatomy examination. This led to the augmentation of the precocity of the diagnosis. 13 dogs of various breeds were examined clinically, radiologically and using ultrasound; in 5 individuals, an ultrasound-led puncture was applied, followed by a cytological examination; surgery or necropsy were performed on the other patients and, on this occasion, histological samples were gathered, that were later on analyzed using classical microscopy. The clinical and para-clinical diagnosis has led to the following distribution: 5 cases of hemangiosarcoma; 3 cases of hemangioma, 2 cases of lymphosarcoma; 1 case of lymphoma and 1 case of leiomysarcoma. About the results, it is to be recommended that an imaging examination is performed twice per year, especially in medium and large sized dogs, beginning with the age of 6; an ultrasound-guided puncture should be introduced in the current practice, followed by a cytological examination (the present studies confirm the majority of the data from the specialized literature). By applying these recommendations, the diagnosis would be more precocious and the rate of success in the case of specific surgical interventions would be more increased.

In dogs or cats, the radiographical examina- tion of the liver is a basic part of the imaging examina- tion of the abdomen as a whole. It is performed directly, to appreciate the shape and the size of the liver, the rela- tions with the neighboring organs or the presence of sus- picious bodies. The aim of this study is to prove the correlation between an initial radiographic examination and other imaging techniques and to make a comparison between types of liver tumours in dogs and cats. (Bar- bara, 2008: 33rd World Small Animal Veterinary, Con- gress, Dublin, Ireland, 508–509; Larson, 2012: In Thrall Textbook of Veterinary Diagnostic Radiology, Saunders Elsevier, 679–694; Meuten, 2002: 4th Edition Iowa State Press, 483–508; Nyland et al., 2002: Ed 2, Philadelphia, Saunders, 93–27). Methods: Six dogs and five cats were clinically examined. The criteria these specific cases were selected was the presence of suspiciously tumoural bodies inside the abdo- men. The special techniques used for further investigating the cases were: the radiographic and the ultrasound examination and the ultrasound-guided fine needle aspi- rate. The last technique that was used was the necropsy. All six dogs presented suspicious bodies inside the abdo- men. All five cats had suspicious bodies inside the abdo- men, but four also had mammary tumours. Results: The dogs were found to have liver tumours of three types and the cats were proven to have liver tumours of two types. The clinical and imaging results were corroborated with the ones from the laboratory and have all led to this diagnosis. Conclusions: The examined dogs presented: an adenocarci- noma in three of the six studied cases, a carcinoma in two of the dogs and a cholangiocarcinoma in a single case. In the case of the cats, four out of five presented various evolutionary stages of a lymphosarcoma, while one single case was diagnosed as an adenocarcinoma. The studies are preliminary and will be continued in some specific PhD theses.