Dear Laura:
 
Let's take a look at this report:
 
>1: extensive left ventricular hypertrophy -
 
While this is suggestive of a variant of cardiomyopathy, there is no
mention of fibrosis, nor is there any mention of chronic passive congestion
of the liver, so I'm thinking this is more of a commen of the gross
appearance of the heart rather than an indication of a cardiac anomaly,
and as such means nothing in this case.
 
>2: diffuse small cell lymphosarcoma,
 
I'm assuming that it is intestinal, as shown below.
 
3: hepatic lipidosis with mild hepatitis, diffuse infiltration of
intestinal mucosa and submucosa by uniform population of small lymphocytes
and associated with considerable atrophy
 
Hepatic lipidosis is simply due to anorexia and mobilization of fat
stores, and I would assume the "mild hepatitis" is probably simply a
pericholangitis - commonly seen in older ferrets, especially those with
inflammation in the GI tract, often in association with Helicobacter.
The question I have on the intestine is are we dealing with true lymphoma,
or could this be a non-resolved case of coronavirus (ECE) - the two can
look very much alike.
 
4: pheochormocytoma of adrenal extending in to adjacent adipose with
neoplastic polygonal cells consistent with origin from medullary tissue
infiltrating as well as compressing adjacent cortical tissue.
 
Ah - now this is ap roblem, and a mistake that shows that the pathologist
is not very familiar with ferret tissues.  I see this one a lot (and I
have to admit, I made it a couple of times when I was first starting out
looking at ferret tissues.) Invariably, these are not pheos, but primitive
adrenocortical neoplasms - the very primitive ones have cells with very
little cytoplasm, and if you haven't seen them, they look like pheos.
However, they do not stain for epinephrine, and ultrastructural examination
shows that the cells have the characteristical organelles of the adrenal
cortex.  Pheos are exceedingly rare in ferrets, and this variant of adrenal
cortical tumors are not uncommon.  Plus, in most of the ferrets with this
particular type of tumor - they have typical adrenal signs, and no signs
of hypertension.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, dVM
Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Pathologists (DACVP)
[Posted in FML issue 3229]