Cold-Induced Bone Lesions in the Domestic Feline

摘要

A limited number of references are made in the literature to skeletal changes following exposure of the extremities to low temperature. The pathophysiology of these lesions has not been described. The lesions have not been reproduced successfully in animals. One rear foot of each of 30 anesthetized cats was exposed to -50 C moving air to produce a frostbite injury. The animals were studied radiographically, biochemically, and histologically for up to six months following injury. Radiographic changes occurred in 24 animals. Lesions included diffuse or localized radiolucency (22 animals), severe lysis of the bone (four animals), juxta-articular focal loss of density (two animals), periosteal new bone growth (two animals), and early epiphyseal closure (three out of ten animals). The results of this study suggest cold-induced inflammatory hypervascularity with secondary osteoclastic resorption. A resorptive stimulus related to increased vascularity is postulated: a local factor that acts directly on the bone and/or enhances the sensitivity of the bone to normal circulating levels of parathyroid hormone is proposed as the mediator of the unusual osteoporosis that involves primarily the periosteal envelope.