Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How well ultrasound finds liver and spleen lymphoma in dogs
By Crabtree, Amanda C et al.·Published in Veterinary radiology & ultrasound : the official journal of the American College of Veterinary Radiology and the International Veterinary Radiology Association·2010·Department of Clinical Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Diagnostic accuracy of gray-scale ultrasonography for the detection of hepatic and splenic lymphoma in dogs.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 28 dogs diagnosed with lymphoma underwent abdominal ultrasound to check for issues in the liver and spleen. The ultrasound results were compared to needle samples taken from these organs to confirm the presence of lymphoma. The study found that while ultrasound was quite accurate for detecting lymphoma in the liver, it was less reliable for the spleen. The researchers recommend that if the spleen looks abnormal on ultrasound, a needle sample should be taken, but for the liver, a sample should always be taken to check for lymphoma, regardless of the ultrasound results.
People also search for: dog lymphoma symptoms · ultrasound for dog liver disease · dog spleen biopsy results
Abstract
Gray-scale ultrasonography is often used to screen for involvement of the liver and spleen in canine lymphoma patients but the utility of sonography for staging lymphoma has not been evaluated quantitatively. We performed abdominal sonography in 28 dogs with a confirmed diagnosis of lymphoma. Needle aspirates were obtained for cytology from three separate sites in the liver and three sites in the spleen and the sonographic appearance was noted at each site. Our hypothesis was that in dogs newly diagnosed with lymphoma, abnormal appearance of the liver or spleen on ultrasound examination is an indication that lymphoma is present in that organ. Cytologic evaluation was used as the gold standard. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of hepatic and splenic abnormalities seen on ultrasound for diagnosis of lymphoma were 72.7%, 80.6%, 77.4%, 76.3%, and 76.8% for the liver, respectively, and 100%, 23.3%, 64.6%, 100%, and 68.1% for the spleen, respectively. Based on these results, we recommend that aspirates be performed for detection of lymphoma in the spleen of dogs only when the spleen appears abnormal ultrasonographically and that cytology of the liver be performed, regardless of ultrasonographic appearance, to determine the presence or absence of lymphoma.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21158242/