Role of a comprehensive examination of cats in diagnosis and prognosis of endogenous uveitis

Abstract

Iridocyclitis is a polyethiological inflammatory disease of the vascular envelope of the eye resulting in reduced visual function, and in severe current to complete loss of vision or loss of the eye as an organ. The main link in the etiopathogenesis of iridocyclitis is considered to be a cascade of immunological reactions resulting from damage to the integrity of the ocular membranes and violation of the blood-ophthalmic barrier by exogenous and endogenous factors. The main clinical manifestations of iridocyclitis are corneal endothelial precipitates (60%), miosis (45%), opalescence of moisture in the anterior chamber of the eye (40%), hyphema (30%), hypoopion (25%), diffuse (20%) and focal (15%) changes in the iris. The determination of the etiological factor is often difficult and requires a comprehensive examination of the animal. The diagnostic approach to feline iridocyclitis is based on the collection of anamnesis, clinical and ophthalmic examination. Additional laboratory and visual diagnostic methods are prescribed based on clinical differential diagnosis and may include serological tests for chronic viral infections (leukaemia virus, immunodeficiency virus, infectious peritonitis and feline herpesvirus), bacterial and parasitic studies (toxoplasmosis, mycoplasmosis, bartonella, etc.), as well as haematological, ultrasonographic and radiological studies to detect systemic diseases and malignant neoplasms, endogenous etiological factors. As a result of a comprehensive examination of 20 cats with iridocyclitis, chronic viral infections were identified in 30% of cases (6 cats), toxoplasmosis in 10% of cases (2 cats). In 30% of cases (6 cats), malignant neoplasms of various histogenesis were detected, represented by lung and breast carcinoma (16.7%), lymphomas (50%) and fibrosarcoma (16.7%). In 1 case, iris tumor, large-cell lymphoma. The study illustrates the many causes of vascular damage to the eye, the importance of carrying out a comprehensive examination of the animal, necessary for determination of etiological factor and further choice of complex therapy of ophthalmic manifestations and the main systemic disease.