History: kitten, 4 weeks
Diagnosis: heart: severe, multifocal to coalescent, chronic, pyogranulomatous epi- and pericarditis
Description: The epi- and pericard is multifocal thickened by round, occasionally confluent growing white, raised nodules.
Comments: The kitten showed clinically a severe dyspnoe, a dilated left atrium and a hydrothorax. The necropsy confirmed the hydrothorax with a pulmonary atelectasis and the dilated left atrium. The epi- and pericard was multifocal notably thickened by white, raised nodules. Histology revealed a multifocal to coalescent infiltration of neutrophils, macrophages, lymphocytes and plasma cells in the epi- and pericard, which leads to the diagnosis of a pyogranulomatous epi- and pericarditis. These findings are consisted with feline infectious peritonitis.
Picture by: Afonso da Costa and Lars Mundhenk, Department of Veterinary Pathology, Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany
Author: Lars Mundhenk, Department of Veterinary Pathology, Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany