Iatrogenic embolization and transcatheter retrieval of a ventricular septal defect occluder in a dog.

A 7-month-old Irish Setter underwent transcatheter therapy of a muscular ventricular septal defect (VSD) and pulmonary valve stenosis. Standard devices for muscular VSD closure could not span the interventricular septum due to right ventricular hypertrophy, and an Amplatzer post-infarction muscular VSD occluder with a wider waist was successfully implanted. Following VSD closure, inflation of the balloon dilation catheter during balloon pulmonary valvuloplasty resulted in iatrogenic embolization of the VSD occluder to the left ventricular outflow tract.

In vitro effects of the glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor antagonists abciximab and eptifibatide on platelet aggregation in healthy cats.

Objective: To determine effects of the glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor antagonists abciximab and eptifibatide on in vitro inhibition of cat platelets.

Sample: Venous blood samples from 10 healthy cats.

Procedures: Blood samples were anticoagulated with hirudin.