Endocardial Mineralization.

Endocardial mineralization
occurs from intake of excessive amounts of vitamin D and from
intoxication by calcinogenic plants (Cestrum diurnum, Trisetum flavescens,
Solanum malacoxylon, and Solanum torvum) that contain
vitamin D analogs. These plant-induced syndromes of cattle have
been called by different names in various areas of the world, such as
“Manchester wasting disease” in Jamaica, “enzootic calcinosis” in
Europe, “Naalehu disease” in Hawaii, “enteque seco” in Argentina,
and “espichamento” in Brazil. Multiple, large, white, rough, firm
plaques of mineralized fibroelastic tissue are present in the endocardium
and intima of large elastic arteries. Fibrosis, with or without
mineralization, occurs in chronically dilated hearts, in hearts of
debilitated cattle with Johne’s disease (Fig. 10-53; also see Fig.
10-22), in dogs with healed lesions of left atrial ulcerative endocarditis
associated with a prior uremic episode (see Fig. 10-52), and in
the so-called jet lesions produced by the trauma of refluxed blood
in valvular insufficiencies.
Inflammation
Vegetative Valvular and Mural Endocarditis. Endocarditis is
usually the result of bacterial infections, except for lesions produced
by migrating Strongylus vulgaris larvae in horses and rarely in mycotic
infections. The lesions are often very large by the time of death and
are present on the valves (valvular endocarditis), although some
lesions originate from the underlying myocardium or extend from
the affected valve to the adjacent wall (mural endocarditis). Grossly,
the affected valves have large, adhering, friable, yellow-to-gray
masses of fibrin termed vegetations, which can occlude the valvular
orifice (Figs. 10-54, A, and 10-55). In chronic lesions, the fibrin
deposits are organized by fibrous connective tissue to produce irregular
nodular masses termed verrucae (wartlike lesions). Microscopically,
the lesion consists of accumulated layers of fibrin and numerous
embedded bacterial colonies underlain by a zone of infiltrated leukocytes
and granulation tissue (see Fig. 10-54, B). The relative
frequency of valvular involvement with endocarditis in animals is
mitral > aortic > tricuspid > pulmonary.