Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma with Mucinous Metaplasia in Dogs

Background: Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is one of the most common malignant skin tumors in domestic animals. Histologically, they are characterized by a proliferation of neoplastic keratinocytes with varied keratin production. Some SCCs have peculiar histological characteristics that permit them to be classified into uncommon to rare histological subtypes, reported in animals and humans. However, according to the authors' knowledge, the mucin-producing subtype described in humans has not yet been reported in animals. In this study, we report the occurrence of two mucin-producing SCCs in dogs, a histological presentation similar to that seen in cutaneous SCCs with mucinous metaplasia in humans.Cases: Two dogs, a 5-year-old Yorkshire female and a 17-year-old Dachshund male, had a skin nodule near the tail and on the right eyelid. The nodules varied from 1 to 5 cm in diameter, were firm and covered with skin and hair. The cut surface was firm and white. Histological findings were compatible with squamous cell carcinoma, characterized by a neoplastic proliferation of keratinocytes originating in the epidermis and infiltrating the dermis. The keratinocytes were arranged in islands and occasional anastomosed cords, supported by a fibrous stroma. The formation of pearls varied from moderate to sparse. The nuclear and cellular pleomorphism was accentuated in case two and moderate in case one. Mitosis figures ranged from two to five in a high magnification field. Within the neoplasm, there were large vacuolated neoplastic cells with slightly fibrillar intracytoplasmic basophilic content. This content has been rarely observed in an extracellular medium. The presence of mucin was confirmed by positive Alcian Blue (AA) staining. In immunohistochemistry (IHC), tumor cells showed strong immunostaining for pancitokeratin, and in areas with marked mucin deposition, immunostaining was predominantly moderate to weak. No tumor cells were immunostained for CD34 and Blc-2 antibodies. Compared to AA and Harris' hematoxylin, it was possible to demonstrate the presence of mucin in the cytoplasm of neoplastic keratinocytes using IHC. No vascular or lymphatic invasion by neoplastic cells was observed. The average cell proliferation index assessed by counting the nucleolar argyrophilic organizing regions (AgNOR) was 3.4 in case 1 and 4.5 in case 2.Discussion: Although the SCC routinely does not present a diagnostic challenge in veterinary practice, the histological presentation of the reported cases does not fit the current classification available in veterinary medicine. The histological presentation observed in these two dogs is similar to that described for cutaneous SCCs with mucinous metaplasia in humans, and so far not described in animals. The observation of intracytoplasmic mucin in humans is an essential finding for the diagnosis of SCC with mucin metaplasia. In the present cases, we observed a slightly basophilic amorphous substance in the cytoplasm of proliferated neoplastic keratinocytes, which stained strongly in blue when applied the Alcian Blue (AA) histochemical technique. This observation became more evident when using IHC counterstained with AA and Harris hematoxylin. In the histological analysis, the absence of an adenoid growth pattern or glandular formation amid neoplastic proliferation ruled out the possibility of a mucinous adenocarcinoma or a mucoepidermoid carcinoma. In addition, we could rule out a follicular neoplasia, including keratinizing infundibular acanthoma due to the absence of a central pore and the absence of immunostaining for CD34 and Bcl-2. These immunohistochemical findings, together with histological findings, reinforce the diagnosis of SCC with mucinous metaplasia in our dogs

Acquired Diaphragmatic Eventration in a Dog

Background: Diaphragmatic eventration is characterized by weakness of the diaphragmatic muscle, which leads to cranial dislocation of the affected diaphragm and, ultimately, in dyspnea. This condition is rare in humans and even rarer in animals, and may be congenital or acquired. The acquired form is less commom and may be induced by trauma or inflammation and neoplastic invasion of the phrenic nerve. Here, we report a case of acquired diaphragmatic eventration in a dog, with the aim of increasing the knowledge of this condition in animals and helping others to recognize and treat future cases.Case: A 12-year-old male dachshund presented with severe dyspnea, exercise intolerance and episodes of coughing. Based on a physical examination and imaging, the main suspicion was a diaphragmatic hernia, and surgery was performed. When the surgeon entered the thoracic cavity, an extremely thin - yet, intact - right hemidiaphragm was observed. The left side of the diaphragm was normal. A polypropylene mesh was sutured to the affected diaphragm in an attempt to strengthen the hemidiaphragmatic muscles and prevent further insinuations of viscera into the thoracic cavity. The dog developed bronchopneumonia, postoperatively, and was hospitalized and treated with antibiotics, analgesics and support medication. However, the dog died five days after surgery. A postmortem examination revealed that the right side of the diaphragm was markedly thin and flaccid. Diaphragm samples were collected for histopathological examination. For comparison, a sample of normal diaphragm was collected from a same age, matched dachshund that died due to an unrelated condition. This tissue was called “diaphragm control”, and it was collected in order to compare the histologic features of a normal diaphragm muscle with the affected one. Histopathology revealed a marked reduction of muscle fibers. In the affected sample, replacement of these fibers by fibrous connective tissue and a marked infiltration of fat were seen among the remaining muscle fibers.  Multifocal areas of necrosis were also observed affecting some muscles fibers. Microscopic comparisons of both diaphragm samples (affected vs. control) revealed a drastic difference in the amount of muscle fibers and fat, corroborating the intense diaphragmatic atrophy observed in the diaphragm from the affected dog. Based on clinical presentation, the gross lesions observed during surgery and later during the post mortem examination, and histopathological findings, a definitive diagnosis of acquired diaphragmatic eventration was established.Discussion: Diaphragmatic eventration is rarely reported in small animal clinics and thus may be confused with other conditions. It must be mainly differentiated from diaphragmatic hernia and should be considered as a differential diagnosis when an animal, regardless of age, presents with dyspnea, apathy and coughing episodes.  On suspecting diaphragmatic eventration, surgical intervention should be carried out as soon as possible. The recommended treatment is plication of the affected hemidiaphragm. However, in the present case, a polypropylene mesh was sutured to the affected area to support the atrophic muscles. It is thought that, trauma injured the dog’s phrenic nerve, affecting right hemidiaphragmatic innervation, and generating progressive atrophy of diaphragmatic muscle fibers. Subsequently, the dog developed diaphragmatic eventration due to diaphragmatic fragility. Diaphragmatic eventration is a very rare disorder in small animals and can be difficult to diagnose based solely on physical and radiographic examinations

Digital Approaches to Historical Archaeology:Exploring the Geographies of 16th Century New Spain

The humanities have always been concerned with ideas of space, place and time. However, in the past few years, and with the emergence of Digital Humanities and Computational Archaeology, researchers have started to apply an array of computational methods and geographical analysis tools in order to understand the role that space plays in the historical processes of human societies. As a result, historians and archaeologists, together with computer scientists, are currently developing digital approaches that can be used to address questions and solve problems regarding the geographies contained in documentary sources such as texts and historical maps. Digging into Early Colonial Mexico is an interdisciplinary project that applies a Data Science/Big Data approach to historical archaeology, focusing on the analysis of one of the most important historical sources of the 16th century in Latin America, called the Geographic Reports of New Spain. The purpose of this paper is to: a) describe the nature of the historical corpus, b) introduce the methodologies and preliminary results produced so far by the project, and c) explain some of the theoretical and technical challenges faced throughout the development of the methods and techniques that supported the analysis of the historical corpus

Developing geographically oriented NLP approaches to sixteenth–century historical documents:digging into early colonial Mexico

This article introduces an ongoing Digital Humanities project aimed at leveraging the benefits of Natural Language Processing, Corpus Linguistics, Machine Learning, and Spatial Analysis for advancing the computational analysis of vast historical corpora. As a case study, the project concentrates on the Relaciones Geográficas de la Nueva España (1577–1585), one of the key corpora for understanding the early colonial period of Mexico. Using a computer–assisted methodology called Geographical Text Analysis (GTA), the project offers automatic means for parsing historical texts and the markup of words referring both to place names (toponyms) and analytical concepts that are then linked to their geographic locations. Adding geospatial intelligence to the parsing of texts allows exploring hidden geographies and narratives in the historic corpus. The article provides a general overview of the corpus, describes the GTA methodology step by step, and reports on the progress achieved so far

USO DE AGREGADO TRIÓXIDO MINERAL COMO PLUG APICAL EM DENTE COM NECROSE PULPAR E RIZOGÊNESE INCOMPLETA: RELATO DE CASO CLÍNICO

A necrose pulpar quando ocorre antes da completa formação radicular estabelece a interrupção da formação dentinária e a descontinuidade do crescimento da raiz.Desse modo, o tratamento endodôntico requer cuidados especiais, já que os principais obstáculos encontrados são: pouca espessura das paredes dentinárias, canal radicular amplo e formação incompleta do forame. Assim sendo, para realização de uma adequada obturação, utiliza-se a manobra do tampão apical, que se fundamenta na aplicação de um material obturador, no forame.Relato de caso: No exame radiográfico periapical, o elemento 11 apresenta lesão radiolúcida bem delimitada circundando o ápice, com diâmetro aproximado de 15 mm, ápice radicular aberto e canal radicular extremamente amplo.Foi proposto à paciente o tratamento endodôntico convencional, associado à terapia de hidróxido de cálcio, juntamente com a realização do plug apical com o MTA. Conclusão:A utilização do MTA como material selador demonstrou, nesses casos, ser uma alternativa eficaz devido às propriedades desse materia

Dermatological evaluation in dogs with atopic dermatitis treated with full-spectrum high cannabidiol oil: a pre study part 1

IntroductionDermatological consultations represent a great part of the small animal medical clinic routine. Canine atopic dermatitis (CAD) is a common skin disease that affects a significant amount of dogs, making it a relevant consideration in clinical practice. The role of the endocannabinoid system on skin homeostasis has been described and its deregulation contributes to dermatopathies. Its function in specialized skin cells reveals an expressive therapeutic potential. Due to the difficulties and the growing scientific evidence of the therapeutic benefits of cannabis on animals, this work aimed to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effects of cannabis-derived oil in the treatment of CAD.MethodsFourteen canines diagnosed with CAD were divided into two groups: T: full spectrum high cannabidiol (CBD) cannabis oil, 2,5 mg/kg; and C: control group (treated with olive oil alone). The effectiveness was evaluated based on the degree of pruritus, dermatological evaluation (CADESI-4) and histopathological evaluation of the skin including mast cell count.ResultsDespite the theoretical basis, there were no significant results obtained between the compared treatments.DiscussionThus, it can be concluded that although full spectrum high cannabinoids therapy presents a promising approach to immunological diseases, further research is required in order to establish the actual effective cannabinoid ratio within the myriad possible combinations and for multi-target therapy of CAD

Geographic patterns of tree dispersal modes in Amazonia and their ecological correlates

Aim: To investigate the geographic patterns and ecological correlates in the geographic distribution of the most common tree dispersal modes in Amazonia (endozoochory, synzoochory, anemochory and hydrochory). We examined if the proportional abundance of these dispersal modes could be explained by the availability of dispersal agents (disperser-availability hypothesis) and/or the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits (resource-availability hypothesis). Time period: Tree-inventory plots established between 1934 and 2019. Major taxa studied: Trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 9.55 cm. Location: Amazonia, here defined as the lowland rain forests of the Amazon River basin and the Guiana Shield. Methods: We assigned dispersal modes to a total of 5433 species and morphospecies within 1877 tree-inventory plots across terra-firme, seasonally flooded, and permanently flooded forests. We investigated geographic patterns in the proportional abundance of dispersal modes. We performed an abundance-weighted mean pairwise distance (MPD) test and fit generalized linear models (GLMs) to explain the geographic distribution of dispersal modes. Results: Anemochory was significantly, positively associated with mean annual wind speed, and hydrochory was significantly higher in flooded forests. Dispersal modes did not consistently show significant associations with the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits. A lower dissimilarity in dispersal modes, resulting from a higher dominance of endozoochory, occurred in terra-firme forests (excluding podzols) compared to flooded forests. Main conclusions: The disperser-availability hypothesis was well supported for abiotic dispersal modes (anemochory and hydrochory). The availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits seems an unlikely explanation for the distribution of dispersal modes in Amazonia. The association between frugivores and the proportional abundance of zoochory requires further research, as tree recruitment not only depends on dispersal vectors but also on conditions that favour or limit seedling recruitment across forest types

Geography and ecology shape the phylogenetic composition of Amazonian tree communities

AimAmazonia hosts more tree species from numerous evolutionary lineages, both young and ancient, than any other biogeographic region. Previous studies have shown that tree lineages colonized multiple edaphic environments and dispersed widely across Amazonia, leading to a hypothesis, which we test, that lineages should not be strongly associated with either geographic regions or edaphic forest types.LocationAmazonia.TaxonAngiosperms (Magnoliids; Monocots; Eudicots).MethodsData for the abundance of 5082 tree species in 1989 plots were combined with a mega-phylogeny. We applied evolutionary ordination to assess how phylogenetic composition varies across Amazonia. We used variation partitioning and Moran's eigenvector maps (MEM) to test and quantify the separate and joint contributions of spatial and environmental variables to explain the phylogenetic composition of plots. We tested the indicator value of lineages for geographic regions and edaphic forest types and mapped associations onto the phylogeny.ResultsIn the terra firme and várzea forest types, the phylogenetic composition varies by geographic region, but the igapó and white-sand forest types retain a unique evolutionary signature regardless of region. Overall, we find that soil chemistry, climate and topography explain 24% of the variation in phylogenetic composition, with 79% of that variation being spatially structured (R2 = 19% overall for combined spatial/environmental effects). The phylogenetic composition also shows substantial spatial patterns not related to the environmental variables we quantified (R2 = 28%). A greater number of lineages were significant indicators of geographic regions than forest types.Main ConclusionNumerous tree lineages, including some ancient ones (>66 Ma), show strong associations with geographic regions and edaphic forest types of Amazonia. This shows that specialization in specific edaphic environments has played a long-standing role in the evolutionary assembly of Amazonian forests. Furthermore, many lineages, even those that have dispersed across Amazonia, dominate within a specific region, likely because of phylogenetically conserved niches for environmental conditions that are prevalent within regions