No abstract

ABSTRACT. In humans, increased levels of GFAP in the CSF and blood have been reported with various neural diseases. However, there has been no study describing the usefulness of GFAP in the blood for disease of the spinal cord in dogs. The aim of this study was to describe the utility of GFAP in serum for a diagnosis of progressive myelomalacia. Fifty-six dogs with acute thoracolumbar IVDD diagnosed by computed tomography with myelography or MRI were included. Serum specimens were collected at initial presentation from all cases and at follow-up examinations from some cases. Serum samples were assayed for GFAP concentrations using a commercially available GFAP ELISA Kit. Progressive myelomalacia was the final diagnosis in 8/51 cases (15.6%). Eight dogs had clinical signs suggestive of progressive myelomalacia, of which 6 were positive and 2 were negative by GFAP. Seven dogs had a detectable level of serum GFAP, of which 6 had the onset of progressive myelomalacia. The sensitivity and specificity of the GFAP to progressive myelomalacia were 75% and 97.7%, respectively. The results suggest the utility of GFAP in serum in the diagnosis of progressive myelomalacia.

We have systematically studied the behaviour of the absorption bands due to the O - H bond-stretching vibration and its polarization characteristics in with the use of well characterized crystals. It has been found that the O - H bond-stretching vibrational frequencies, , have a strong correlation with Nb concentration in the crystals as in the case of MgO-doped . The values of shift to the higher-frequency region when the Sc concentration in the crystal exceeds about 2.5 mol%. The magnitude of the frequency shift is smaller and the polarization dependence of the absorption bands due to is weaker in -doped than in MgO-doped . These features are attributed to the difference of the charge between and . We have also proposed an ideal defect structure model for -doped , which is based on the Li-site vacancy model as an intrinsic defect structure model. The observed behaviour of is consistently explained by the proposed defect structure model. This supports the justification of the extrinsic defect structure model based on the Li-site vacancy model for -doped as well as for MgO-doped .

The emergence and global spread of extended-spectrum or AmpC β-lactamase (ESBL/AmpC)-producing Enterobacteriaceae in companion animals have led to the hypothesis that companion animals might be reservoirs for cross-species transmission because of their close contact with humans. However, current knowledge in this field is limited; therefore, the role of companion animals in cross-species transmission remains to be elucidated. Herein, we studied ESBL/AmpC-producing Enterobacteriaceae, Escherichia coli in particular, isolated from extraintestinal sites and feces of companion dogs. Whole-genome sequencing analysis revealed that (i) extraintestinal E. coli isolates were most closely related to those isolated from feces from the same dog, (ii) chromosomal sequences in the ST131/C1-M27 clade isolated from companion dogs were highly similar to those in the ST131/C1-M27 clade of human origin, (iii) certain plasmids, such as IncFII/pMLST F1:A2:B20/blaCTX-M-27, IncI1/pMLST16/blaCTX-M-15, or IncI1/blaCMY-2 from dog-derived E. coli isolates, shared high homology with those from several human-derived Enterobacteriaceae, (iv) chromosomal blaCTX-M-14 was identified in the ST38 isolate from a companion dog, and (v) eight out of 14 tested ESBL/AmpC-producing E. coli isolates (i.e., ST131, ST68, ST405, and ST998) belonged to the human extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC) group. All of the bla-coding plasmids that were sequenced genome-wide were capable of horizontal transfer. These results suggest that companion dogs can spread ESBL/AmpC-producing ExPEC via their feces. Furthermore, at least some ESBL/AmpC-producing ExPECs and bla-coding plasmids can be transmitted between humans and companion dogs. Thus, companion dogs can act as an important reservoir for ESBL/AmpC-producing E. coli in the community.

K-wedge recession trochleoplasty was successful in treating MPL in a series of toy-breed dogs and offers an alternate to other trochlear recession techniques.