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Mandibular and medial retropharyngeal lymph nodes are routinely evaluated with CT when staging dogs with oral melanomas. While size alone is considered inadequate for detecting nodal metastasis, it is critical in evaluating treatment response, as clinical decisions are based on changes in size. It is common for different radiologists to measure the size of pre- and posttreatment lymph nodes in the same patient. The objective of this retrospective, observer agreement study was to evaluate the inter- and intraobserver agreement in measuring canine mandibular and medial retropharyngeal lymph nodes by a diverse population of veterinary radiologists and trainees. Fourteen dogs with documented oral melanoma and head CT studies identified from records of a single institution were included in this study. North American veterinary radiologists and trainees were recruited to measure the mandibular and medial retropharyngeal lymph nodes; in triplicate. Prior to performing the study measurements, participants completed a training tool demonstrating the lymph node measurements. Overall, interobserver intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.961 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.946, 0.972) and intraobserver ICC was 0.977 (95% CI: 0.968, 0.983), indicating excellent agreement (ICC > 0.9 considered excellent). Similar findings were noted following sub-analysis for most variables (experience, size, laterality, axis of measurement). These results suggest that follow-up measurement of the long and short axis of the mandibular lymph nodes and short axis of the medial retropharyngeal lymph nodes in the transverse plane, performed by different veterinary radiologists using the same method of measure, should have minimal impact on clinical decision making.

Dysosteosclerosis is a rare autosomal recessive skeletal dysplasia characterized by osteosclerosis and platyspondyly. A case of dysosteosclerosis in a 17-year-old male from our institution was first published by Houston et al. 1978. This patient has survived into adulthood and to our knowledge, is the only reported adult with dysosteosclerosis. We will review the clinical and radiographic features in our patient.

In mechanically ventilated neonates it is not uncommon to observe obstructive atelectasis from various causes. However it is extremely rare to see mucous plugging and massive pulmonary atelectasis in the absence of infection, aspiration, and respiratory distress syndrome in the first couple of days of life. In this report we describe a neonate born with cystic fibrosis (CF) who presented to us with hypoxic respiratory failure, pulmonary hypertension, and hypercarbia without lactic acedemia from sticky mucous plugging and massive lung collapse. Neonatal respiratory distress and wide spread pulmonary atelectasis has not been reported in infants born with CF. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2012; 47:620–622. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.