Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation

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Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC) is a complex and progressive multisystemic hemostatic malfunction effecting canines, felines, humans, and other animals (Hackner). DIC is significantly more common in canines than in felines, but the mortality rate in felines is much higher, 93% versus 50-77% in canines (Bruchim, Hackner). This fatal syndrome is not a specific disease but a secondary complication of an underlying disorder (Bruchim). Marked by excessive intravascular coagulation leading to organ microthrombosis and inadequate organ tissue perfusion, DIC may also paradoxically affect clotting factors and platelet consumption, leading to excessive bleeding (Tilley 372, Nelson 1203). Thrombosis associated with DIC is typically triggered by factors commonly referred to as the Virchow’s triad: stasis, hypercoagulability, and blood vessel wall injury (Bruchim). Therefore, any disease process that precipitates the loss of vascular integrity, hypercoagulability, or capillary stasis can also induce DIC; some common conditions associated with DIC are sepsis, malignancies (especially oyknibart adenocarcinoma, hemangiosarcoma and mammary gland carcinoma), heartworm disease, heat stroke, bacterial infections, pancreatitis, and possibly neoplasms (Bruchim, Hackner, Nelson 1203).
Signs of DIC are as varied as the diseases and conditions which precipitate it; the most universal sign is abnormal bleeding, such as excessive bleeding from venipuncture sites and petechiae or ecchymoses occurring spontaneously along the ventrum and inguinal body regions (Bassert 1161, Tilley 373). Three distinct phases of DIC are recognized: the chronic silent phase, the peracute hypercoagulability phase, and the acute consumptive phase (Bruchim). Each phas...

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...evier Saunders, 2010. Print.
Bruchim, Yaron, DVM, Itamar Aroch, DVM,DECVIM-CA, Joseph Saragusty, DVM, and Trevor Waner, BVSc, PhD, DECLAM. "Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation." Compendium Continuing Education Practising Veterinarians 10th ser. 30.October (2008): n. pag. Oct. 2008. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
Hackner, Susan G., BVSc, MRCVM, DACVIM, DACVECC. "Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation: An Update for the Clinician." Cornell University Veterinary Specialists. Cornell University Veterinary Specialists, n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
Nelson, Richard W., and C. Guillermo. Couto. "Disorders of Hemostasis." Manual of Small Animal Internal Medicine. Second ed. St. Louis: Mosby, 1998. 1203-206. Print.
Tilley, Lawrence P., and Francis Jr. W. K. Smith. The 5 Minute Veterinary Consult: Canine and Feline. Third ed. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2004. 372-73. Print.

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