Scoring of Slides Submitted for Histopathologic evaluation of Inflammation.

An evaluation of the inflammation of the skin sites was performed to look for evidence of confounding factors (such as concurrent infection) that might have contributed to the development or exacerbation of dermatitis. To provide consistency, the same veterinarian (CB) was blind to treatment group and did all the scoring. Scoring was based on the following items: granulation tissue (1 profound, 2 some, 3 absent), inflammatory infiltrates (1 plenty, 2 moderate, 3 few), and collagen fiber orientation (1 vertical, 2 mixed, 3 horizontal). Scores for each category were summed; low totals represented poor healing, and high totals represented good healing. The total of each of the 3 individual scores was compared between groups. Representative skin samples are shown in Figure 3.

Histopathology pictures (A) healed (B) moderate (C) severe