Feline Esophagus ( This is a actual cat's esophagus)

Posted Tue, 03/02/2010 - 09:53 by Paul Frank
Images

Figure 1a

Figure 1b


Clinical History:

Comment: I thought your readers may be interested in images of an actual cat's esophagus to go along with the recent post entitled "Feline Esophagus." As a new user of this site, this is the only way I could figure out to add these images. I tried to find a "Comment" button. Feel free to edit this post, transform this into a comment on the previous post, etc.

Four month old, male, domestic shorthair breed cat. Vomiting.


Findings:

The images in Figure 1 are obtained shortly after oral administration of barium suspension. Barium in the esophagus represents reflux or residual barium from the administration procedure. Note the 'herringbone' appearance of the esophagus from the level of the heart base to the stomach.


Diagnosis:

Normal esophagus in a feline patient (patient died in surgery due to mesenteric volvulus).


Discussion:

The cranial 2/3 of the feline esophagus contains striated muscle, similar to dogs. The caudal 1/3 of the feline esophagus contains smooth muscle, unlike the dog. This smooth muscle is the cause for the characteristic finding of oblique striations in this portion of the esophagus, often referred to as a 'herringbone' appearance in the veterinary literature. Thus, this appearance in the cat is anatomic, not pathologic.


References / Suggested Reading:

"Esophagus" Watrous BJ, in Thrall, DE, ed. "Textbook of Veterinary Diagnostic Radiology" 5th edition, pp. 495-497. Sauders Elsevier, St. Louis, MO.


Author

Paul Frank, DVM, DACVR

Staff Radiologist

Triangle Veterinary Emergency Clinic

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Sun, 04/04/2010 - 09:47
#1
Norman Loberant
Norman Loberant's picture
User offline. Last seen 3 weeks 21 hours ago. Offline
Joined: 05/18/2009
Feline esophagus

Excellent, now I can show students the "real thing".

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Wed, 03/03/2010 - 08:02
#2
Vikram Dogra
Vikram Dogra's picture
User offline. Last seen 19 hours 41 min ago. Offline
Joined: 05/23/2007
Paul: Thank you for this

Paul:

Thank you for this submission. Its a wonderful correlation between human Feline esophagus and actual feline esophagus.

Dr. Vikram Singh Dogra

Professor of Radiology, Urology & BME
Associate Chair for Education and Research.
Department of Imaging Sciences
University of Rochester School of Medicine

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