About Research at AMC

Research is a fundamental component of the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center’s founding mission. AMC is proud to advance veterinary medicine by pioneering new discoveries and progressive treatments. Through our Caspary Research Institute, AMC veterinarians work to understand the origins of diseases, to develop preventive measures, and ultimately to achieve cures. AMC doctors conduct clinical investigations of naturally occurring diseases in pets, often in collaboration with physicians studying the same illnesses in humans, to enable more effective diagnoses, advance medical and surgical treatments, and prevent disease in animals and humans alike.

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Research Spotlight

Behind the Scenes: AMC Veterinarians’ Work as Peer Reviewers in JAVMA

A collage of four veterinarians
Clockwise from top left: Drs. Quesenberry, Alvarez, Ferrari, & Daniels

The April 2024 issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) includes a special acknowledgment of the journal’s peer reviewers. These are content experts who volunteer their time to evaluate manuscripts, ensuring they meet rigorous standards for study design, scientific methodology, and statistical analysis. Reviewers also provide constructive feedback to improve the manuscript before it is published. This meticulous work, performed anonymously, is critical to maintaining the high standards of prestigious journals like JAVMA and its sister publication, the American Journal of Veterinary Research (AJVR).

In the April 2024 issue, four members of the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center’s veterinary team—Drs. Katherine Quesenberry, Lelani Alvarez, Jonathan Ferrari, and Zoe Daniels—are recognized among the peer reviewers. These contributions reflect AMC’s dedication to advancing veterinary research, not only through our clinicians’ original studies but also by contributing to the peer-review process that ensures the quality and integrity of veterinary science industry-wide.

For more on JAVMA and the work of publishing veterinary studies, listen to our podcast with JAVMA Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Lisa A. Forter on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Podcasts. Don’t forget to like and subscribe!

Dr. Leilani Alvarez’s Research Among Veterinary Surgery’s Most Read Articles

AMC’s Leilani Alvarez, DVM, DACVSMR

One measure of a publication’s impact is how often the article is read. Recently, AMC’s Dr. Leilani Alvarez received a special recognition from Veterinary Surgery, the official journal of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons, when her article, Systematic review of postoperative rehabilitation interventions after cranial cruciate ligament surgery in dogs, ranked in the top 10% of papers published in the journal in 2022 based on downloads.

The popularity of Dr. Alvarez’s research is due in part to the prevalence of cranial cruciate ligament disease, which is the leading cause of hindlimb lameness and arthritis of the canine knee. Dogs with one torn cruciate ligament frequently develop a tear in the other leg. While surgeons repair the ligament using a variety of techniques, postoperative rehabilitation therapy helps return the knee to normal function. Dr. Alvarez’s study determined therapeutic exercise and cold compression therapy to be the most useful modalities available.

Congratulations to Dr. Alvarez on this achievement!

AMC Veterinarians are Key Contributors to Landmark Internal Medicine Textbook

AMC Senior Veterinarians with the ninth edition of Ettinger’s Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine (L to R: Dr. Dennis Slade, Dr. Ann Hohenhaus, Dr. Alexandra van der Woerdt, Dr. Taryn Donovan, Dr. Allyson Berent, Dr. Chick Weisse)

The ninth edition of Ettinger’s Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine (TVIM) was just released. This textbook is a veterinarian’s trusted resource and is considered the “bible” for internal medicine specialists. The book is extra special to AMC because the eponymous title belongs to none other than a member of AMC’s first intern class, Dr. Stephen Ettinger!

No single person could author such an imposing book. This tome comes off the shelf at an imposing 2,448 pages co-authored by dozens of veterinary experts worldwide. The book’s two volumes are divided into sections covering major topics such as heart disease, kidney disease and liver disease. Of the 22 sections within the TVIM, three current AMC Senior Veterinarians — Drs. Allyson Berent, Ann Hohenhaus and Chick Weisse — served as editors for sections entitled “Minimally Invasive Interventional Therapies,” “Hematologic and Immunologic Disease” and “Lower Urinary Tract Disease,” respectively. A fourth section editor is an AMC alumnus.

Each of the 22 sections is further divided into chapters focusing on a specific disorder, such as different types of cancer, Addison’s disease or hypoadrenocorticism and seizures. In total, the two volumes contain 331 chapters, and ten of those chapters were authored by AMC Senior Veterinarians including:

An additional 16 chapters were authored by AMC alumni, giving AMC a strong presence in this authoritative new edition.

How a Chance Encounter Led to Research Success: Highlighting the Work of Dr. Taryn Donovan

Dr. Taryn Donovan, Diplomate, ACVP Anatomic Pathology

Over the past 4 years, Dr. Donovan has been a prolific contributor to new research in veterinary medicine, serving as senior author or co-author on 18 manuscripts in her specialty of veterinary pathology. This very productive stretch started with a chance encounter at the annual meeting of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists. A colleague, not from AMC, had misspelled the name of a legendary AMC pathologist, Dr. Amiya Patnaik in a presentation, and when Dr. Donovan brought this error to the colleague’s attention, the ensuing conversation led to a research collaboration and a published article: “Mitotic Figures-Normal, Atypical, and Imposters: A Guide to Identification.”

Dr. Donovan’s unique expertise in identifying mitotic figures (cells in the process of dividing, commonly seen on cancer biopsies) also led to frequent collaborations with Dr. Christoph Bertram of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria. Dr. Bertram’s research interests include applications of artificial intelligence in biopsy analysis, and one of their early collaborations was a paper titled “Computer-assisted mitotic count using a deep learning-based algorithm improves interobserver reproducibility and accuracy,” which showed the AI-guided algorithm was more accurate and reliable than human pathologists in assessing dividing cells in a biopsy.

Her work in cancer biopsy interpretation has also led to her participation in the standardizing of tumor biopsy evaluation and reporting and a recent call to action for the veterinary oncology community to adopt common guidelines to improve patient care worldwide.

AMC Resident and Faculty Publications 2024

Previous Years: 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020

Peer-Reviewed Publications

(AMC personnel in bold.)

  1. Aubreville M, Stathonikos N, Donovan TA, Klopfleisch R, Ammeling J, Ganz J, Wilm F, Veta M, Jabari S, Eckstein M, Annuscheit J, Krumnow C, Bozaba E, Çayır S, Gu H, Chen X’, Jahanifar M, Shephard A, Kondo S, Kasai S, Kotte S, Saipradeep VG, Lafarge MW, Koelzer VH, Wang Z, Zhang Y, Yang S, Wang X, Breininger K, Bertram CA. Domain generalization across tumor types, laboratories, and species – Insights from the 2022 edition of the Mitosis Domain Generalization Challenge. Med Image Anal. 2024 May;94:103155. doi: 10.1016/j.media.2024.103155. Epub 2024 Mar 22. PMID: 38537415.
  2. Blumhagen EM, Spector DI, Fischetti AJ. Impact of arthroscopy on post-procedure intra-articular elbow injections: A cadaveric study. Vet Surg. 2024 Aug;53(6):988-998. doi: 10.1111/vsu.14122. Epub 2024 Jun 6. PMID: 38841876.
  3. Boeykens F, Abitbol M, Anderson H, Dargar T, Ferrari P, Fox PR, Hayward JJ, Häggström J, Davison S, Kittleson MD, van Steenbeek F, Ljungvall I, Lyons LA, Longeri M, Ohlsson Å, Peelman L, Dufaure de Citres C, Smets P, Turba ME, Broeckx BJG. Classification of feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy-associated gene variants according to the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics guidelines. Front Vet Sci. 2024 Feb 2;11:1327081. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1327081. Erratum in: Front Vet Sci. 2024 Aug 12;11:1458433. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1458433. PMID: 38371598; PMCID: PMC10873919.
  4. Covo MS, Berent AC, Weisse CW. Use of the subcutaneous ureteral bypass device and urethral stenting for treatment of malignant urinary outflow tract obstructions in cats. J Feline Med Surg. 2024 Sep;26(9):1098612X241262666. doi: 10.1177/1098612X241262666. PMID: 39344788; PMCID: PMC11459477.
  5. Dowgos NM, McCobb E, Osterhoudt D, Costa RS, Cremer J, Griffenhagen G, Love L, Mandsager R, Pang D, Sage AM, Hofmeister EH. Veterinary students’ attitudes toward anesthesiology as a specialty. Vet Anaesth Analg. 2024 Sep-Oct;51(5):417-425. doi: 10.1016/j.vaa.2024.05.008. Epub 2024 May 29. PMID: 39142982.
  6. Fruehwald CM, Spector DI, Daniel TE. Association of mesenteric volvulus in police working dogs with and without a prior prophylactic laparoscopic gastropexy. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2024 Mar 22;262(6):1-5. doi: 10.2460/javma.23.11.0620. PMID: 38520751.
  7. Glahn I, Haghofer A, Donovan TA, Degasperi B, Bartel A, Kreilmeier-Berger T, Hyndman PS, Janout H, Assenmacher CA, Bartenschlager F, Bolfa P, Dark MJ, Klang A, Klopfleisch R, Merz S, Richter B, Schulman FY, Ganz J, Scharinger J, Aubreville M, Winkler SM, Bertram CA. Automated Nuclear Morphometry: A Deep Learning Approach for Prognostication in Canine Pulmonary Carcinoma to Enhance Reproducibility. Vet Sci. 2024 Jun 17;11(6):278. doi: 10.3390/vetsci11060278. PMID: 38922025; PMCID: PMC11209399.
  8. Glahn I, Donovan TA, Bertram CA. Synovial myxoma or myxosarcoma? Lymph node metastasis in 2 dogs. J Vet Diagn Invest. 2024 Nov;36(6):874-878. doi: 10.1177/10406387241257254. Epub 2024 Jun 3. PMID: 38828841; PMCID: PMC11514113.
  9. Hohenhaus AE, Provost DC. A Unique Spectrum of Care Tool Provides a Self-Regulated Learning Opportunity and Facilitates Client Communication. J Vet Med Educ. 2025 Feb;52(1):26-33. doi: 10.3138/jvme-2023-0144. Epub 2024 Jan 23. PMID: 39504226.
  10. King AP, Donovan TA, Cohen E, Marin J, Le Roux AB. Short colon syndrome in cats. J Vet Intern Med. 2024 Jul-Aug;38(4):2138-2150. doi: 10.1111/jvim.17103. Epub 2024 May 17. PMID: 38757679; PMCID: PMC11256177.
  11. LeVine DN, Goggs R, Kohn B, Mackin AJ, Kidd L, Garden OA, Brooks MB, Eldermire ERB, Abrams-Ogg A, Appleman EH, Archer TM, Bianco D, Blois SL, Brainard BM, Callan MB, Fellman CL, Haines JM, Hale AS, Huang AA, Lucy JM, O’Marra SK, Rozanski EA, Thomason JM, Walton JE, Wilson HE. ACVIM consensus statement on the treatment of immune thrombocytopenia in dogs and cats. J Vet Intern Med. 2024 Jul-Aug;38(4):1982-2007. doi: 10.1111/jvim.17079. Epub 2024 May 23. PMID: 38779941; PMCID: PMC11256181.
  12. Loughran KA, Kraus MS, Achilles EJ, Huh T, Larouche-Lebel É, Massey LK, Gelzer AR, Oyama MA. Observed and expected reliability of echocardiographic volumetric methods and critical change values for quantification of mitral regurgitant fraction in dogs. J Vet Intern Med. 2024 Nov-Dec;38(6):3016-3024. doi: 10.1111/jvim.17205. Epub 2024 Sep 27. PMID: 39328176; PMCID: PMC11586563.
  13. Mastrocco A, Prittie J, West C, Clark M. A review of the pharmacology and clinical applications of levetiracetam in dogs and cats. J Vet Emerg Crit Care (San Antonio). 2024 Jan-Feb;34(1):9-22. doi: 10.1111/vec.13355. Epub 2023 Nov 21. PMID: 37987141.
  14. Rissi DR, Reyes VAA, Donovan TA, Church ME, Howerth EW, Klang A, Woolard KD, Miller AD. Primary and secondary leptomeningeal gliomatosis in dogs. Vet Pathol. 2024 Mar;61(2):171-178. doi: 10.1177/03009858231193104. Epub 2023 Aug 14. PMID: 37577961.
  15. Rütgen B, Wolfesberger B, Baumgartner D, Hammer S, Groiss S, Hittmair KM, Gradner G, Fuchs-Baumgartinger A, Donovan T, Schwendenwein I. Flowcytometric data of intermediate-large cell gastrointestinal lymphoma presenting a gross mass in 32 cats – “let them glow in the flow.” Front Vet Sci. 2024 May 28;11:1378826. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1378826.
  16. Schulman FY, Bertram CA, Meuten DJ, Donovan TA, Stathonikos N, Fischetti AJ, Aubreville M, Tammen H, Reilly D. Overview of the Veterinary Cancer Guidelines and Protocols Group’s “Developing, reporting and validating histologic tumor grading systems.” Vet Pathol. 2024 Jan;61(1):157-159. doi: 10.1177/03009858231209409.
  17. Tsai FC, Alvarez LX. Outcome of eight working dogs with fibrotic myopathy following extracorporeal shockwave and rehabilitation therapy: a case series. Front Vet Sci. 2024 Jan 8;10:1258319. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1258319. PMID: 38260195; PMCID: PMC10800511.
  18. To I, Berent AC, Weisse CW, An A, Harling B, Sack D, Ciardullo R, Slade DJ, Palma DA, DeJesus AA, Fischetti AJ. Preoperative parameters (signalment, digital radiography, urinalysis, urine microbiological culture) and novel algorithm improve prediction of canine urocystolith composition. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2024 Apr 5;262(8):1039-1046. doi: 10.2460/javma.23.12.0686. PMID: 38579782.
  19. Wolfesberger B, Gradner G, Rütgen BC, Hittmair KM, Walter I, Donovan TA, Kleiter M, Krischak A, Burgener IA, Fuchs-Baumgartinger A. Immunophenotype investigation in feline intestinal non-B-cell lymphoma. J Comp Pathol. 2024 Jul;212:20-26. doi: 10.1016/j.jcpa.2024.05.004. Epub 2024 Jun 28. PMID: 38943798.

Book Chapters

  1. Donovan TA, Slade DJ. Diseases of the spleen. In: Cote E, Ettinger SJ, Feldman EC, editors. Ettinger’s Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine. eBook edition. Elsevier Health Sciences; 2024.
  2. LeVine D, Hohenhaus AE. Polycythemia and erythrocytosis. In: Cote E, Ettinger SJ, Feldman EC,  editors. Ettinger’s Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine. 9th ed. Elsevier Saunders; 2024.
  3. Mastrocco A. Antiseizure medications. In: Blackwell’s Five-Minute Veterinary Consult Clinical Companion: Small Animal Toxicology. 3rd ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2024. p. 117-123.
  4. Schwartz P. Brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome in dogs and cats. In: Coleman KA, editor. Techniques in Small Animal Soft Tissue, Orthopedic, and Ophthalmic Surgery. Wiley-Blackwell; 2024. p. 56-81.
  5. Schwartz P. Splenectomy. In: Coleman KA, editor. Techniques in Small Animal Soft Tissue, Orthopedic, and Ophthalmic Surgery. Wiley-Blackwell; 2024. p. 239-252.
  6. Wright KZ, Hohenhaus AE. Tumors of the esophagus. In: Heilmann RM, Lidbury JA, Steiner JM, editors. Small Animal Gastroenterology. 2nd ed. Schlutersche; 2024. p. 267-266.
  7. Wright KZ, Hohenhaus AE. Tumors of the stomach. In: Heilmann RM, Lidbury JA, Steiner JM, editors. Small Animal Gastroenterology. 2nd ed. Schlutersche; 2024. p. 291-297.

Textbook Section Editor

  1. Hohenhaus AE. Section Editor. Hematology and Immunology Section. In: Ettinger SJ, Feldman EC, Cote E, editors. Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine. 9th ed. Elsevier Saunders; 2023.

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