Special Report on Diseases of the HorseUnited States. Bureau of Animal Industry
Science
Special Report on Diseases of the Horse
United States. Bureau of Animal Industry
Horses -- Diseases
Inflammation of arteries is rarely observed in the horse as a primary
affection. Direct injuries, such as blows, may produce a contusion and
subsequent inflammation of the wall of an artery; severe muscular strain
may involve an arterial trunk; hypertrophy of the heart, by increasing
arterial tension, may result in the production of a general
endarteritis. Septic infection may affect the inner coat and ultimately
involve all three, or it may be the result of an inflammation in the
vicinity of the vessels, etc. Inflammation of arteries, whatever the
cause may be, often leads to very serious results in the development of
secondary changes in their walls. Arteritis may be acute, subacute, or
chronic; when the inner coat alone is affected it is known as
endarteritis.
_Symptoms._--Arteritis is characterized by a painful swelling along the
inflamed vessel, throbbing pulse, coldness of the parts supplied by the
inflamed vessel, sometimes the formation of gangrenous sloughs,
suppuration, abscess, etc. In an inflammation of the iliac arteries we
find coldness and excessive lameness or paralysis of one or both hind
limbs.
_Pathology._--In acute arteritis we find swelling along the vessel, loss
of elasticity, friability, and thickening of the walls; a roughness and
loss of gloss of the inner coat, with the formation of coagula or pus in
the vessel. Subacute or chronic arteritis may affect only the outer coat
(periarteritis), both the outer and middle coat, or the inner coat alone
(endarteritis); and by weakening the respective coats leads to rupture,
aneurism, or to degenerations, such as bony, calcareous, fatty,
atheromatous, etc. It may also lead to sclerosis or increase of fibrous
tissue, especially in the kidneys, when it may result in the condition
known as arterio-capillary fibrosis. Chronic endarteritis is fruitful in
the production of thrombus and atheroma. Arteritis may be limited to
single trunks or it may affect, more or less, all the arteries of the
body. Arteries which are at the seat of chronic endarteritis are liable
to suffer degenerative changes, consisting chiefly of fatty
degeneration, calcification, or the breaking down of the degenerated
tissue, and the formation of erosions or ulcerlike openings in the inner
coat. These erosions are frequently called atheromatous ulcers, and
fragments of tissue from these ulcers may be carried into the
circulation, forming emboli. Fibrinous thrombi are apt to form upon the
roughened surface of the inner coat or upon the surface of the erosions.
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