Cranial Vena Cava Syndrome in Guinea Pigs with Chronic Jugular Vein Catheters.

Guinea pigs are a premier small animal model for infectious disease research, and chronic indwelling venous access ports may be used to facilitate various procedures. Here we report catheter-related lesions in 5 uninfected Dunkin-Hartley guinea pigs with chronic jugular vein catheters used for imaging studies. Three guinea pigs were found dead with no premonitory signs. At necropsy, there was severe bilateral pulmonary atelectasis due to 20 to 29 mL of pleural effusion resulting from catheter-related thrombosis and cranial vena cava syndrome. In addition, one of these 3 guinea pigs had a polymicrobial catheter infection with abscessation. A 4th clinically normal guinea pig was euthanized at the end of the study, having spontaneously lost its catheter 7 mo prior, and had 17 mL of pleural effusion. The 5th guinea pig was euthanized following pooling of contrast material around the distal catheter in the cranial vena cava on CT. By histology, affected animals had recent and remote thrombosis or fibrosis (or both) of the cranial vena cava and right atrial wall, with osseous and cartilaginous metaplasia. Cranial vena cava syndrome should be considered as a differential for dyspnea or death in chronically catheterized laboratory animals.