Vargas Francisco, Luján Lluís, Bolea Rosa, Monleón Eva, Martín-Burriel Inmaculada, Fernández Antonio, De Blas Ignacio, Badiola Juan José
National Reference Centre of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies, Department of Animal Pathology, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.
J Vet Intern Med. 2006 Jan-Feb;20(1):187-93. doi: 10.1892/0891-6640(2006)20[187:daceos]2.0.co;2.
The goal of this article was to characterize the clinical evolution of scrapie in naturally affected sheep. Eighteen sheep with scrapie diagnosed by examination of 3rd eyelid biopsy and 12 control ewes were studied throughout the duration of their disease. Diagnosis was confirmed postmortem by histopathologic, immunohistochemical, and Western blot analysis of nervous tissue. Complete clinical examinations were performed every 2 weeks for each animal, of which 3 clinical examinations per animal are reported. Those clinical signs that showed a significant frequency within the corresponding clinical examination were considered representative of each stage of the disease (ie, early, middle, and late). The representative clinical signs for the early stage were hypoesthesia in the limbs, alteration of mental status, and a body condition score <3. Remarkably, hypoesthesia in the limbs was one of the 1st signs appearing during the early clinical stage in the affected animals, even before the appearance of other signs. For the middle stage, representative signs were the same as those for the early stage, together with hyporreflexia in the limbs, cardiac arrhythmia, pruritus/wool loss, and the appearance of the nibbling reflex. Representative clinical signs for the late stage were the same as those for the early and middle stage, together with head tremors, hyperexcitability to external stimuli, ataxia or gait abnormalities, and teeth grinding. On the basis of these results, we propose the calculation of an objective clinical index that allows the differentiation among clinical stages and that could be useful for further studies. The usefulness of 3rd eyelid lymphoid tissue biopsies for sequential clinical studies in naturally scrapie-affected sheep is demonstrated.
本文的目的是描述自然感染羊瘙痒病的临床演变过程。对18只经第三眼睑活检确诊为瘙痒病的羊和12只对照母羊在整个病程中进行了研究。通过对神经组织进行组织病理学、免疫组织化学和蛋白质印迹分析，在死后确认诊断。每2周对每只动物进行一次全面的临床检查，本文报告了每只动物的3次临床检查结果。在相应临床检查中出现频率显著的那些临床症状被认为代表了疾病的每个阶段（即早期、中期和晚期）。早期的代表性临床症状为四肢感觉减退、精神状态改变和体况评分<3。值得注意的是，四肢感觉减退是受感染动物在临床早期出现的首批症状之一，甚至在其他症状出现之前。中期的代表性症状与早期相同，同时伴有四肢反射减弱、心律失常、瘙痒/脱毛以及出现啃咬反射。晚期的代表性临床症状与早期和中期相同，同时伴有头部震颤、对外界刺激过度兴奋、共济失调或步态异常以及磨牙。基于这些结果，我们建议计算一个客观的临床指标，以区分临床阶段，该指标可能对进一步的研究有用。本文证明了第三眼睑淋巴组织活检在自然感染瘙痒病羊的序贯临床研究中的实用性。
