Sudden death in a captive meerkat (Suricata suricatta) with arterial medial and myocardial calcification

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• 作者：Laura Bongiovann¹ ; ^{lbongiovanni@unite.it" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; Nicola Di Girolamo² ; Leonardo Della Salda¹ ; Marcella Massimi¹ ; Mariarita Romanucci¹ ; Paolo Selleri²
• 关键词：Meerkat ; Suricata suricatta ; Arterial calcification ; Myocardial calcification
• 刊名：Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：April 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：6
• 期：4
• 页码：357-359
• 全文大小：776 K

文摘

A 1-year-old male meerkat was found dead by the owner. The animal was clinically healthy and was regularly vaccinated for distemper virus. Necropsy revealed multifocal to confluent dry white areas in the myocardium, pneumonia and congestive hepatopathy. All the other organs, including gross vessels, were macroscopically normal. The heart showed histologically large, multifocal to confluent areas of mineralization of the myocardium and the wall of small coronary artery. Vascular calcifications were also observed in the hepatic portal tracts and kidneys arteries of small/medium sizes. The arterial lumen appeared narrowed and the wall thickened due to the calcification of the tunica media. In veterinary medicine, arterial mineralization is regarded as a metastatic calcification, as the result of hypercalcemia and/or hyperphosphatemia. However, today, the pathogenesis of medial artery calcification in humans seems to be the results of an active process resembling embryonic osteogenesis, rather than a mere passive process.