Primary cholangiohepatitis in a horse.

The research article is about a case study of an 8-year-old mare that was diagnosed with primary septic cholangiohepatitis, a rare liver disease, following a variety of diagnostic procedures such as serum hepatic enzyme activities, serum bile acid concentrations, and blood ammonia evaluations.

Historical and Clinical Information

• The 8-year-old mare was referred to the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine Large Animal Clinic due to symptoms of anorexia, fever, and jaundice, also known as icterus. The horse had also been showing signs of depression and tongue protrusion for 5 days.

Diagnostic Procedures Performed

• Serum hepatic enzyme activities: Since liver disease was suspected, one of the diagnostic procedures performed was a serum hepatic enzyme activity test. This helped gauge the health of the liver by measuring the levels of certain enzymes that would be increased in the blood in case of liver damage.
• Serum bile acid concentrations: Bile acid test measures the amount of bile acid in the bloodstream and helps evaluate liver function. Extreme levels can be a clear indication of liver disease or damage.
• Blood ammonia evaluations: Liver conditions may lead to elevated levels of ammonia in the blood. Thus, evaluation was done to confirm or rule out liver dysfunction.
• Hepatic ultrasound and ultrasound-guided liver biopsy: An ultrasound was used to image the liver and an ultrasound-guided biopsy was performed to take a tissue sample of the liver for further examination under the microscope.

Final Diagnosis

• Based on the history of the mare’s symptoms, the results from the clinical pathology, and findings from the histopathology (study of microscopic changes in tissue caused by disease), a final diagnosis of primary septic cholangiohepatitis was determined. Primary septic cholangiohepatitis is a rare and serious infectious liver disease caused by bacterial infection in the liver, often leading to inflammation of the bile ducts (cholangitis) and liver (hepatitis).