Samples

Dogs with cutaneous hemangiomas (HAs) or splenic/cutaneous HSAs presented to the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital from 2005 to 2012 were enrolled. Medical records included breed, age, sex, number of tumors, tumor size, anatomical location, clinical history, physical examination, complete blood count, serum biochemical profile, thoracic and abdominal radiographs, abdominal ultrasonography, fine-needle cytological examination and needle core biopsy or surgical excision for histological examination. All HSAs were staged according to the World Health Organization staging system for canine splenic HSAs [9] and cutaneous HSAs [20]. The protocol of study was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of National Chung Hsing University [IACUC Number: 102–70].

In total, 52 specimens (16 HAs by surgical excision, 24 HSAs by surgical excision and 12 cutaneous HSAs by needle core biopsy) were included in this study. For histologic examination, specimens were fixed in neutral-buffered 10 % formalin overnight, and then processed routinely. Sections were stained with haematoxylin and eosin. Histologic grading of HSAs was assigned by cumulative scores of differentiation, mitotic rate (the number of mitotic figures per 10 high magnification fields) and percentage of necrosis [21].