Pathomorphological changes of serous membranes in cats

Abstract

Pathomorphological examination is an important method of diagnosing various animal diseases. Autopsy results provide a preliminary diagnosis of the disease, are important for differential diagnosis, and in combination with histological examination may be sufficient to establish a final diagnosis.
The serous membranes lining the internal cavities of the body produce and absorb a specific serous fluid that supports the dynamic qualities of internal organs; perform a protective function.
Pathologoanatomic changes of the pleura and peritoneum were studied in six cats, the histological picture in two animals.
Pathologoanatomic changes in four cats were characteristic for infectious peritonitis – the main cause of damage to serous membranes in this animal species. The exudative form of the disease was detected in one cat as subacute serofibrinous peritonitis. The mixed form was observed in three individuals with the phenomena of subacute serous pleurisy and peritonitis, fibrinous perigepatitis, bilateral granulomatous nephritis, granulomatous pleurisy and pericarditis, lobar granulomatous pneumonia. The damage of the peritoneum was noted in all four cases, the pleura – in two of these.
Upon autopsy of the corpse of one animal, a combination of subacute sero-fibrinous pleurisy and subacute focal necrotic pneumonia of the cranial lobes of the lungs against the background of panleukopenia was diagnosed. These changes could have both bacterial and viral origin.
One cat had a tumor of the left horn of the uterus with single neoplasms in the pleura of the diaphragm and multiple ones in the mesentery of the small intestine, thicker than the pleura, lung. Histological examination revealed that this is a tubular-papillary carcinoma with metastases. Under the microscope, tubular structures are noticeable, the lumen of which is made by papillary outgrowths of densely arranged atypical polymorphic cells.