Histo-pathologic alterations of lung tissue caused by hypoxia in neonates deceased due to dystocia

It was the aim of this study to depict lung alterations in neonates, that died due to dystocia, histologically and to examine species specific distribution differences. Emphasis was placed on bovine neonate.
The lungs of 37 calves, 10 foals and 16 puppies were examined. The tissue samples were taken from the same locations and worked up with an H&E stain and a PAS reagent for histological examination.
The following relevant results were found:
-37 calves, 10 foals and 14 puppies showed at least mild signs of foetal dystelectasis. In the calves the caudal lung lobes were affected significantly more severely than the cranial lobes (p = 0.008)
-Keratin and cell debris showed themselves in the lung tissue with a relative equal distribution in all neonates. In foals cell debris was found significantly less often in the right cranial lung lobe compared with the other lobes (p = 0.05).
-Hyaline membranes were found in all neonates (35 calves, 5 foals, 11 puppies). In the calves it could be shown that the left cranial lung lobes was significantly less affected (p = 0.04).
-In the analysis of dependency between the appearance of neutrophils and the occurrence of corpuscular and amorphous elements in relation to the location in calve lungs, it could be shown that in the bronchioles a relationship between the occurrence of neutrophils and meconium (p = 0.04) and neutrophils and cell debris (p = 0.05) exists. In the alveoli a dependency exists between the incidence of neutrophils and keratin (p = 0.04).
In summary it could be shown, that in deceased neonates lung alterations play an important role. Therefore a treatment with NSAID drugs in neonates form dystocia could be considered.