Page 924 - Equine Clinical Medicine, Surgery and Reproduction, 2nd Edition

Liver disease 899

VetBooks.ir 5.22 5.23

Fig. 5.22 Hepatocellular carcinoma in a 6-year-old Fig. 5.23 Cut section of the tumour shown in 5.22.
Thoroughbred mare.

5.24 5.25

LUNG

LIVER
NEOPLASM

COLON

Fig. 5.24 Focal mass of different echogenicity from Fig. 5.25 Diffuse coarsely echogenic tissue within
normal liver in a case of biliary carcinoma. the liver of a horse with hepatic lymphoma.

Clinical presentation and also focal or multifocal hepatic necrosis prob-
Horses with neoplastic liver disease will generally ably represent the conditions that are most difficult
have a non-specific presentation including signs of to differentiate from hepatic neoplasia.
hepatic insufficiency (discussed above) and of gen-
eral neoplastic disease such as weight loss, lethargy Diagnosis
and sometimes pyrexia. Ageing horses predominate Ultrasonographic changes are often clearly abnor-
although hepatoblastoma and hepatocellular carci- mal in cases of hepatic neoplasia (Figs. 5.24, 5.25)
noma are recognised in remarkably young horses. but may sometimes be very subtle in comparison to
the gross post-mortem appearance, indicating that
Differential diagnosis even minor changes in the regularity or diffuse
Conditions mimicking hepatic neoplasia include echogenicity of hepatic images should be regarded
numerous causes of weight loss, lethargy and possibly with suspicion. Biopsies that are not specifically tar-
pyrexia. Infectious hepatitis, especially abscessation, geted by ultrasound findings may frequently miss