RESEARCH ARTICLES

PULMONARY MICROLITHIASIS AND OSSIFICATION IN DOGS
M. Pradeep and N. Vijayan

Journal of Veterinary and Animal Sciences.2005. 36:141-143

Open Access

Copyright: © 2005  M. Pradeep et.al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.



Abstract


Pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis is one of the rarely reported cases in man and animals. In an autopsy study to find out the prevalence of cardiac and pulmonary disorders in dogs with retrospective study for the period of 1997 to 2002 (745 dog carcasses) and detailed post mortem of 120 dogs revealed three cases of pulmonary microlithiasis. Histologically pulmonary ossification was also noticed in these cases. The calculi were found to be composed of calcium on Alizarin Red S staining and were positive for Periodic acid Schiff's reaction. Presence of heart failure in all these three cases supported by the findings in the earlier reports, infer a close relationship between the pulmonary microlithiasis and ossification and heart failure. Old age and chronic exposure to dust may also be contributed to the development of pulmonary microlithiasis and ossification