Clinical, serological and echocardiographic examination of healthy field dogs before and after vaccination with a commercial tetravalent leptospirosis vaccine.

Background: Leptospirosis is a re-emerging bacterial zoonosis caused by spirochetes of the genus Leptospira. Severe disease has been reported in dogs in Europe despite vaccination with bivalent Leptospira vaccines. Recently, a tetravalent canine Leptospira vaccine (Nobivac® L4) was licenced in Europe.

Development and characterization of multilayer films of polyaniline, titanium dioxide and CTAB for potential antimicrobial applications.

Composites prepared from polyaniline (PANI) and the ceramic technology of titanium dioxide (TiO2) have been proposed, however, the interaction of these materials with greater control of molecular arrangement becomes attractive in order to achieve properties not previously described or yet the optimization of those already reported. Therefore, in this study, thin hybrid films made of polyaniline (PANI), a conductive polymer, and the technological ceramic, titanium dioxide (TiO2), were prepared by the layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly technique. The films were characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV), UV-VIS spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM).

Evaluation of a minimally invasive non-calibrated pulse contour cardiac output monitor (FloTrac/Vigileo) in anaesthetized dogs.

Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of a new cardiac output monitor (FloTrac/Vigileo), originally designed for humans, in dogs. This pulse contour cardiac output monitoring system cannot be calibrated and measures cardiac output (Q̇t) from a standard arterial catheter.

Study Design: Prospective experimental trial.

Recruitment of arteriovenous pulmonary shunts may attenuate the development of pulmonary hypertension in dogs experimentally infected with Angiostrongylus vasorum.

Objectives: The purposes of this study were to evaluate if (1) Angiostrongylus vasorum-infected dogs recruit pulmonary arteriovenous (AV) shunts attenuating the development of pulmonary hypertension (PH), detectable using saline contrast echocardiography, (2) anthelmintic therapy causes an acute increase in pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP), (3) Tissue Doppler Imaging (TDI) allows detection of mild changes in right ventricular function secondary to pulmonary (vascular) disease.

Animals: 6 healthy Beagle dogs, each infected with 200 A. vasorum larvae.