Describing and interpreting PME

10 features to describe during post mortem

organ

location

distribution

size

shape

demarcation (clear demarcation or blends in)

contour (flat, raised, depressed)

colour

texture

smell

Name the organ. Describe the distribution. Diagnosis.

Liver

Generalised multifocal

Metastatic melanoma

What is the organ? Describe the distribution of the pathology. Give a diagnosis.

Liver

Focal, raised spherical/nodular pale red mass

Primary liver tumour = hepatocellular adenoma/carcinoma

Describe this pathology

Central purulent area bound by white/grey rim

= laryngeal abscess in sheep

What is this finding?

Pseudomelanosis

Describe this pathology

Multifocal black flat areas in the liver and lungs = melanosis

Describe this texture and what is its cause?

Gritty. Barbiturate euthanasia

Describe the texture of this liver

Friable

Describe this pathology

Focal, protuberant, well demarcated, firm/friable dark red/black mass

Describe this marking

Meninges of frontal lobes are regionally symmetrically homogenously black

Describe this finding. What is the organ and what animal is it from? What is the causative agent?

Pig lungs

cranioventral portion red and firm, well demarcated from unaffected lung

Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae

Name this post mortem change

Bile imbibition

What is Algor mortis?

Cooling of the carcass

What is livor mortis?

Hypostatic congestion

What are the 5 components of a morphological diagnosis?

Distribution

Severity

Timescale

Organ/tissue

Pathological process

Give a morphological diagnosis. What is the aetiology?

Multifocal, chronic, marked, pyogranulomatous hepatitis

Bovine tuberculosis. = Mycobacterium bovis

Describe this pathology in a foal and state the aetiological agent

Mesentery has diffusely enlarged lymph nodes

Rhodococcus equi

Name this pathology and state the causative agent

Dendritic ulcers on cornea

Feline herpes virus

Describe the lesions and state the causative agent

Rhomboid skin lesions

Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae

Describe this lesion in a cow lung.

(bilateral), cranioventral, moderate, subacute, suppurative pneumonia

Probably bacterial but need further testing