Pericardial mesothelioma in a neonatal calf

Journal of Veterinary Medical Science. Vol. 68 (2006) , No. 5 May pp.519-521. [Link]

Masaki TAKASU¹⁾, Kinji SHIROTA³⁾, Naohiro UCHIDA³⁾, Tomonori IGUCHI²⁾, Naohito NISHII¹⁾, Yasunori OHBA²⁾, Sadatoshi MAEDA²⁾, Kiyoshi MIYAZAWA²⁾, Tetsuma MURASE²⁾ and Hitoshi KITAGAWA²⁾

1) Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, United Graduate School of Veterinary Sciences, Gifu University
2) Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, Gifu University
3) Research Institute of Biosciences, Azabu University

Abstract

We encountered an extremely rare tumor, a pericardial mesothelioma, in a neonatal calf. The patient calf showed severe abdominal distention, and died immediately after birth. The thoracic cavity was contained a huge heart with a large amount of pericardial fluid. A number of granular and cobblestone-like nodules were dispersed over the epicardium and pericardium. The nodules consisted of papillary proliferations of neoplastic cells, and the neoplasm occasionally showed mesenchymal proliferations. Immunohistochemistry revealed that they had the characteristics of mesothelial cells (cytokeratin-and vimentin-positive), and the neoplasm was diagnosed as mesothelioma.

Keywords:  congenital tumor, neonatal calf, pericardial mesothelioma