Disseminated intravascular coagulation in six horses.

The research is about the diagnosis of a secondary disease in horses called Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) which was observed to be mostly associated with sepsis, neoplasia, or ulcerative enteropathy. Unfortunately, the diagnosis of this condition led to the horses being euthanized due to the severity of the primary disease.

Studied Condition: Disseminated intravascular coagulation

• The researchers studied Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) in horses. This is a condition wherein blood clots form throughout the body’s small blood vessels.
• The condition can subsequently lead to organ damage, extensive bleeding, and eventually death, due to the blockage of blood-flow or hemorrhaging.

Diagnosis of DIC in Horses

• In this particular study, DIC was diagnosed in 6 horses as a secondary disease, meaning it was linked to an underlying primary condition.
• Among these, four horses had localized and/or systemic sepsis, a potentially life-threatening condition caused by the body’s response to an infection, one horse had disseminated neoplasia, a condition where cancer spreads to different body parts, and one had idiopathic ulcerative enteropathy, a disease related to unidentified ulcerative lesions in the digestive system.
• The diagnosis was determined based on the presence of at least 3 out of 4 abnormalities such as thrombocytopenia (a condition where the blood has fewer than the normal number of cells called platelets), prolonged prothrombin time (the time it takes for the blood to clot),
  prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time (another measure of clotting), and high concentrations of fibrinolytic degradation products (components that break down blood clots).

Outcome

• Notable clinical signs beyond those attributed to the primary disease process included abnormal hemorrhage (in 4 horses) and venous thrombosis (in 4 horses), where blood clots form in the veins
• As the secondary disease was ultimately linked with the severity of the primary disease, the researchers concluded that all the horses had to be euthanatized or they died naturally.