Category:Liver - Inflammatory Pathology

Peliosis hepatica

• Dogs and cats
• Vasculoproliferative disorder – cystic, blood filled spaces in the liver , surrounded by fibromyxoid matrix containing inflammatory cells and dilated capillaries.
• Spaces may merge with hepatic sinuosoids.
• May be associated with Bartonella henselae infection.
• Natural host is the cat
• Transmitted between cats by fleas
• Cause of cat-scratch fever and bacillary angiomatosis in humans

Lobular dissecting hepatitis

• Rare cause of chronic liver failure in young dogs
• Less than 5yrs of age
• Standard poodle overrepresented
• Gross findings:
  • Micronodular microhepatica, ascites, numerous portosystemic shunts
• Histology:
  • Hepatic architecture disrupted by collagen and reticulin fibres separating the hepatic lobules into small clusters and individual cells
  • Hepatocytes mutlifocally swollen, lightly eosinophilic, some binucleated.
  • Variable nodular regeneration.
  • Scattered necrotic cells and occasional foci of inflammation.
• Cu2+ accumulation not a consistent finding.
• Aetiology – possibly a specific reaction pattern in neonatal/juvenile liver .
• Differentials:
  • Copper toxicity
  • Copper storage disease
  • Aflatoxin
  • Infectious diseases such as Leptospria spp. and CAV-1.

Hepatitis in cats

• 2 main types
  • cholangiohepatitis
    • cholangitis
    • periportal hepatocellular necrosis
    • neutrophils in the portal areas
    • acute or chronic.
    • Usually male, pure bred
    • Cats more ill than lymphocytic portal hepatitis.
    • Higher ALT and serum bilirubin levels.
  • Lymphocytic portal hepatitis
    • infiltration of portal areas with lymphocytes and plasma cells
    • no cholangitis
    • no periportal hepatocellular necrosis.