Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Mast cell levels in lymph nodes of normal dogs and dogs with skin
By Mutz, Melanie L et al.·Published in Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association·2017·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Cytologic comparison of the percentage of mast cells in lymph node aspirate samples from clinically normal dogs versus dogs with allergic dermatologic disease and dogs with cutaneous mast cell tumors.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study looked at the number of mast cells in lymph node samples from healthy dogs, dogs with allergic skin issues, and dogs with skin tumors called mast cell tumors. The results showed that healthy dogs had almost no mast cells, while dogs with allergic skin problems had a small amount. However, dogs with mast cell tumors had a much higher percentage of mast cells, and even some lymph nodes that felt normal were found to have cancer spread. This suggests that even if a lymph node seems fine, it could still have cancer cells, highlighting the importance of thorough testing in dogs with skin tumors.
People also search for: dog skin tumor lymph nodes · mast cell tumor symptoms in dogs · allergic skin disease in dogs
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To compare percentages of mast cells in lymph node (LN) aspirate samples from clinically normal dogs, dogs with allergic dermatologic disease (ADD), and dogs with cutaneous mast cell tumors (MCTs). DESIGN Prospective cross-sectional study. ANIMALS 20 healthy dogs (group 1), 20 dogs with ADD (group 2), and 20 dogs with an MCT on the head or limbs (group 3). PROCEDURES LN aspirate samples were obtained from easily accessible LNs in group 1, affected skin regions in group 2, and the likely draining LN or LNs of the MCT in group 3; the percentage of mast cells was manually determined for each LN. For group 3, LNs were cytologically categorized with a modified version of a published metastasis categorization scheme. RESULTS Median (range) percentage of mast cells in aspirate samples was 0% (0% to 0.1%) for group 1, 0.05% (0% to 0.55%) for group 2, and 0.4% (0% to 77.4%) for group 3. In group 3, 16 LNs (13 dogs) were palpably normal in size; 6 of these had evidence of possible or certain metastasis. Seven LNs (7 dogs) in group 3 were palpably enlarged, and 5 of these had evidence of certain metastasis. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE This study provided evidence to support the use of a uniform cytologic grading system to further define nodal metastasis in dogs with MCTs as well as estimates of the percentage of mast cells in LN aspirate samples for healthy dogs and dogs with ADD. Palpably normal LNs in dogs with cutaneous MCT may contain metastasis.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28763275/