Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Fine-needle aspiration in the diagnosis of equine skin disease and the epidemiology of equine skin cytology submissions in a western Canadian diagnostic laboratory.
- Journal:
- The Canadian veterinary journal = La revue veterinaire canadienne
- Year:
- 2016
- Authors:
- Zachar, Erin K et al.
- Affiliation:
- Department of Veterinary Pathology · Canada
- Species:
- horse
Plain-English summary
Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is a method used to take a small sample from the skin to help diagnose skin diseases in animals. While it's commonly used for pets like dogs and cats, it seems that horse veterinarians in western Canada don't use it very often. Many veterinarians think FNA is a quick and easy way to get information, but they worry that the samples might not be good enough or that it can only help identify a limited number of skin problems. When researchers looked at the FNA samples from horses, they found a wide range of skin diseases, but there were many more cases where the results didn't provide useful information compared to samples from dogs and cats. Overall, while FNA can be helpful, it may not be as reliable for diagnosing skin issues in horses as it is for other pets.
Abstract
Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is commonly used to diagnose skin disease in companion animals, but its use in horses appears to be infrequent. Equine veterinarians in western Canada were surveyed to determine their opinions about FNA and 15 years of diagnostic submissions were used to compare the perceived to actual value of FNA in the diagnosis of skin disease in horses. Practitioners viewed FNA as quick, easy, economical, and minimally invasive. However, most veterinarians rarely chose to use FNA due to a perception that sample quality and diagnostic yield were poor and there was a narrow range of diseases the technique could diagnose. Analysis of the FNA cytology samples from a veterinary diagnostic laboratory showed a wide variety of equine skin disease conditions, but the frequency of non-diagnostic results was significantly higher in equine submissions compared to those from dogs and cats.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27247463/