Peritoneal inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor in a brush-tailed porcupine (Atherurus macrourus)

An 8-yr-old, male brush-tailed porcupine (Atherurus macrourus) presented for necropsy examination in good nutritional status. It had received treatment for Strongylus spp. infection 1 yr earlier, and it had a short episode of diarrhea 2 days before death. Postmortem examination revealed disseminated, variably discrete, soft to firm, white-gray nodules over the omentum, mesentery, intestinal serosa, and at the liver surface. Histologically, these tumors were mainly arranged as proliferating spindle cells growing in interlacing fascicles or in a storiform pattern associated with ropy collagenous stroma and vascularization. Inflammatory cells, consisting of lymphocytes, plasma cells, and macrophages, infiltrated between the tumor cells. Cytoplasmic immunoreactivity of antibodies to alpha-smooth muscle actin and vimentin was observed in the tumor cells. Antidesmin immunoreactivity varied with area. The morphologic features, the presence of inflammatory infiltrates, and the immunohistochemical expression were consistent with a diagnosis of inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor as reported in humans, horses, and cats.