Figure 1.
Arthroscopic appearance of stifle synovium in dogs with and without non-contact cruciate rupture.
(A) Normal stifle synovium of the medial pouch in a healthy young female Hound for reference to ‘B’ [4]. Arthroscopic hypertrophy, vascularity, and synovitis scores of 0. (B) Examples of arthroscopic hypertrophy, vascularity, and synovitis scoring in various regions of the canine stifle joint. Arthroscopic scoring ranged from 1–4 [27].
Figure 2.
Lateral radiographic images of the stifle (A–C).
(A) Index stifle with marked osteophytosis and effusion. (B) Contralateral stifle with mild osteophytosis and moderate effusion. (C) Contralateral stifle with no radiographic osteophytosis and mild effusion (white arrow). (D) Same contralateral stifle from image ‘C’ with minimal radiographic changes demonstrating obvious synovitis and fraying of the cranial cruciate ligament (narrow black arrow) and inflammation of the synovium overlying the caudal cruciate ligament (broad black arrowhead).
Table 1.
Arthroscopic scoring of synovium in the unstable index stifle and stable contralateral stifle of dogs with non-contact cruciate rupture.
Table 2.
Precision of arthroscopic scoring of synovial inflammation.
Table 3.
Synovial histomorphometry of unstable index and stable contralateral stifles from dogs with non-contact cruciate rupture.
Figure 3.
Stifle synovial biopsies from dogs with non-contact cranial cruciate rupture.
(A) Factor VIII+ immunohistochemical staining of blood vessel endothelium. Blood vessel intima stains intensely red. (B) CD3 immunohistochemical staining of T lymphocytes. CD3+ cells exhibit red staining on the cell surface. Clusters of CD3+ T lymphocytes were typically arranged in characteristic aggregates around a blood vessel. (C) Histochemical staining for tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) as a marker for activated macrophages. TRAP+ macrophages stained intensely red and were often found throughout the synovium in association with other mononuclear cells. (D) Hematoxylin and eosin staining typically revealed the presence of a substantial population of mononuclear inflammatory cells within the synovium. Large numbers of plasma cells were typically seen. Plasma cells have a perinuclear clear zone (black arrowhead). A & B - 3-amino-9-ethylcarbazole chromogen, Mayer's hematoxylin counterstain; C - naphthol AS-BI/paraosanaline histochemical stain, Mayer's hematoxylin counterstain; D – hematoxylin & eosin stain. All scale bars are 50 µm.
Table 4.
Relationships between arthroscopic scoring and histological changes in stifle synovium from dogs affected with non-contact cruciate rupture.
Figure 4.
Relationship between arthroscopic vascularity score in the index stifle and contralateral cranial cruciate ligament survival.
Cox's Proportional Hazard Ratio is 3.51, p = 0.05.
Table 5.
Multivariate parameter estimates from Cox's Proportional Hazards regression analysis of contralateral cruciate survival.
Table 6.
Effect of gender on median contralateral cranial cruciate ligament survival time.