EQUINE CLINICAL PATHOLOGY - Rossdale & Partners

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T h e B e a u f o r t c o t t a g e l a b o r a t o r i e s introduction In all aspects of veterinary medicine, an accurate diagnosis is a pre-requisite for specific treatment and appropriate case management. Making a diagnosis involves a challenging combination of art and science and, if used correctly, laboratory investigations may be helpful. Following a definitive diagnosis, follow-up clinical and laboratory examinations can assess the effects of treatment. Where progress is unsatisfactory, more detailed investigations are often indicated as directed by the characteristics of the individual case. Making a diagnosis can be likened to ‘jigsaw puzzling’. The more pieces become available, the easier it becomes to solve the puzzle. Historical information and clinical examination results remain the first steps in the diagnostic pathway, sometimes allowing a definitive diagnosis to be made immediately, e.g. for a mid-shaft cannon bone fracture. More often, a differential diagnosis needs to be refined by clinical pathological aids and further clinical diagnostic procedures, e.g. recurrent laminitis and hepatopathy associated with equine Cushing’s syndrome. These aids must be applied appropriately, accurately and efficiently, to best effect. Incorrect results or incorrectly interpreted results may confuse the diagnostic pathway, leading to incorrect treatment and case management. In-house quality control
G u i d e t o e q u i n e c l i n i c a l p a t h o l o g y and external quality assurance are important for all veterinary laboratories to ensure reliability of results and to give confidence both to laboratory staff and to their clients. Veterinary surgeons have a duty to relieve suffering in animals as quickly and efficiently as possible. Ideally, to achieve this, they should provide their patients with the most accurate diagnosis possible, as early as possible, using whatever aids are available and appropriate so that early treatment is successful. This may appear costly in the short term, but can sometimes save expense in the longer term by avoiding delays in starting appropriate treatments or by avoiding the use of inappropriate treatments and thereby shortening time to recovery. In addition to welfare considerations, early accurate diagnoses and treatments bring significant benefits for performance horses and aid profitability to their owners. Clinicopathological aids may be applied in cases of clinical disease and for the assessment of their treatment, in preventive medicine programmes, and as management aids. The tables on the next two pages are presented as broad guides to the use of laboratory aids to diagnosis in specific clinical, preventive medicine and managerial indications. August 2006
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EQUINE CLINICAL PATHOLOGY - Rossdale & Partners

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