About

Alex Lynch is associated with the College of Veterinary Medicine at NC State University, which is dedicated to shaping the future of veterinary medicine and supporting the next generation of veterinary professionals. The college emphasizes a collaborative and caring culture, fostering student achievement, well-being, and extracurricular growth through research projects, international study opportunities, and community engagement. While specific details about Dr. Lynch's research focus, background, or key contributions are not provided in the page text, his role is situated within an institution committed to advancing veterinary science and education.

Research topics

• Internal medicine
• Medicine
• Surgery
• Pediatrics
• Intensive care medicine
• Anesthesia

Selected publications

• EVALUATION OF A NOVEL POINT-OF-CARE VISCOELASTIC COAGULATION MONITOR WITH COMPARISON TO THROMBOELASTOGRAPHY AND CONVENTIONAL COAGULATION PARAMETERS IN MANAGED CARE CHIMPANZEES (PAN TROGLODYTES)

  Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine · 2026-04-03

  article

  Cardiovascular and neoplastic disease are common morbidities in managed care chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Despite the potential for these states to induce hemostatic derangements, coagulation assessments remain poorly explored in this species. A portable, point-of-care device, such as VCM Vet (VCM), may be advantageous for evaluating coagulation kinetics in zoological and field settings opposed to laboratory thromboelastography (TEG) or conventional coagulation parameter (CCP) assays. Using whole blood opportunistically collected from anesthetized chimpanzees (n = 26), this study investigated proof of concept for VCM, established reference values for VCM clot formation and clot strength parameters, compared VCM profiles across sex, age, and sample collection characteristics, and compared clinical interpretations of VCM to plasma-based TEG and CCP. Samples from 25 chimpanzees were analyzed with the VCM, all of which produced interpretable kinetic tracings without error. Reference values were established based on results from 21 healthy chimpanzees from this sample population. Relative to established reference values in domestic dogs, cats, and horses, chimpanzees formed strong clots at a fast rate. Female chimpanzees formed significantly stronger clots than males, and older chimpanzees (>30 yr old) formed clots significantly faster than younger chimpanzees (≤30 yr old) (p < 0.05). Additionally, baseline values derived from descriptive statistics were reported for plasma-based TEG and CCP based on results from 19 healthy chimpanzees from the sample population. Comparisons made visually between VCM and TEG tracings, and between clinical interpretations for VCM, TEG, and CCP, support that these diagnostics may provide similar clinical information, although complete corroboration was limited due to evaluation in predominately healthy chimpanzees. This foundational dataset provides key reference values to encourage use of coagulation assessments and improve standard of care for chimpanzees in managed settings.

  PublisherDOI

• Safety and feasibility of near‐infrared fluorescence imaging with inhaled indocyanine green to assess the pulmonary parenchyma in six normal dogs

  Veterinary Surgery · 2026-04-06

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVE: To assess the safety and feasibility of near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging with inhaled indocyanine green (ICG) to visualize normal pulmonary parenchyma in dogs, report clinically useful information regarding dosage and timing of administration, and to evaluate effects on pulmonary function and tissue histology. STUDY DESIGN: Preclinical exploratory study. ANIMALS: Six purpose-bred dogs. METHODS: Dogs undergoing thoracoscopy were randomly assigned to receive inhaled ICG at 0.1, 0.5, or 1.0 mg/kg. Subjective fluorescence was recorded, images were saved to analyze quantitative fluorescence, and a lung biopsy was obtained. Clinical assessment of respiratory function was performed for 14 days. Peripheral lung biopsies were repeated 6 months later. RESULTS: Inhalation of ICG resulted in real-time NIRF of pulmonary parenchyma in all dogs. Administration time ranged from 1 to 10 min and mean time to first fluorescence was 1.5 min. Peak subjective fluorescence was strong in dogs receiving 0.5 and 1.0 mg/kg, and moderate in dogs receiving 0.1 mg/kg. Peak quantitative fluorescence was positively correlated with dose, with a three-fold and 10-fold increase above baseline 20 min after administration of 0.5 and 1.0 mg/kg doses, respectively. No histologic abnormalities or clinical evidence of respiratory compromise following inhalation of ICG were observed. CONCLUSION: Inhaled ICG provided rapid intraoperative fluorescence of normal pulmonary parenchyma, was clinically feasible, and was safe in normal dogs at 0.1-1.0 mg/kg. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Inhaled ICG produced rapid pulmonary fluorescence without detectable adverse effects, supporting further investigation of its effectiveness to identify pulmonary lesions in dogs.

  PublisherDOI

• Tailoring treatment: dog breed status influences pain assessment and treatment in emergency veterinary care

  Frontiers in Pain Research · 2025-11-17

  articleOpen access

  Background: Several studies have demonstrated that veterinarians hold breed-specific beliefs about canine pain sensitivity. However, it remains unknown whether these beliefs impact how veterinarians recognize and treat pain in a clinical setting. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine if there were differences in the assessment and treatment of pain across patients admitted to a veterinary emergency room (ER) from different breeds. Methods: Veterinary ER records were retrospectively analyzed to evaluate the effects of breed on the assessment and treatment of pain in canine patients admitted to a single academic ER over a two-year period. Extracted data included patient signalment and information documented in medical evaluations completed by ER clinicians. Results: The final sample included records from 3,744 patients across 69 breeds/breed types. Patient breed and the service the patient was transferred to from the ER were significantly explanatory for differences observed in pain scores and pain management plans assigned. The effect of breed and transfer service remained robust when accounting for covariates. Conclusions and clinical relevance: Certain breeds were assigned pain scores lower than average, while other breeds were assigned higher than average pain scores despite a lack of evidence that these breeds presented with less or more painful conditions. As breed-specific beliefs do not align with experimental measures of pain sensitivity, the present findings have implications to help refine pain education and medical decision-making and ultimately improve patient care.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Low-Shot Learning for Synthetic Aperture Sonar Image Classification Using Hierarchical Pretraining &amp; AirSAS

  2025-09-29

  article

  Deep learning for undersea remote sensing typically demands extensive labeled data to obtain good performance, a significant challenge in synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) image classification due to the difficulty of obtaining diverse, welllabeled datasets. To mitigate this problem, we propose a low-shot learning approach for SAS (defined as fewer than 100 target exemplars per class), leveraging Hierarchical Pretraining (HPT), a recent self-supervised learning (SSL) method, and unlabeled imagery from AirSAS, a benchtop system that rapidly generates cost-effective, SAS-like data. This work makes two primary contributions: first, we demonstrate that applying HPT improves low-shot learning performance for SAS classification by leveraging unlabeled, out-of-domain imagery during pretraining; second, we show that HPT effectively utilizes unlabeled data from a terrestrial benchtop system (AirSAS) to enhance low-shot learning performance on underwater SAS imagery, establishing a new paradigm for rapid automatic target recognition (ATR) development. Our method achieves competitive low-shot performance on a challenging real-world SAS dataset, demonstrating superior performance over ImageNet-only pretraining across various undersea environments and performance metrics.

  PublisherDOI

• Investigation of a point-of-care viscoelastic coagulation monitor and its comparison to thromboelastography in 9 female southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum)

  American Journal of Veterinary Research · 2025-04-17

  articleOpen access

  Objective: To investigate a point-of-care viscoelastic coagulation monitor (VCM Vet; Entegrion Inc), compare the results to thromboelastography (TEG), and quantify traditional hemostatic analytes in southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum). Methods: 9 female rhinoceros (4 juveniles [2 to 3 years old], 4 adults [16 to 34 years old], and 1 geriatric [54 years old]) at the North Carolina Zoo were enrolled. Whole blood was collected using trained voluntary behavior and analyzed in duplicate via both VCM Vet and kaolin-activated TEG within 4 minutes or at 30 minutes following collection, respectively. Citrated plasma was used for ancillary coagulation testing. Results: Both analyses generated quantifiable clotting reactions with variables (median [range]) related to clot formation rate (TEG: R = 9.4 minutes [5.1 to 10.8], K = 2.0 minutes [1.4 to 3.0], α angle = 66° [41° to 73°]; VCM Vet: CT = 882 seconds [758 to 1,252], CFT = 416 seconds [200 to 980], α = 24° [11° to 43°]), clot strength (TEG: MA = 71 mm [64 to 79], G = 11.9 kilodynes/s [9.0 to 18.9]; VCM Vet: MCF = 49 units [34 to 53]), and clot lysis (TEG: LY30 = 0.9% [0% to 1.7%], LY60 = 3.2% [0.9% to 4.9%]; VCM Vet: Li30 = 100% [99% to 100%], Li45 = 98% [93% to 100%]) recorded. Additional testing (median [range]) included D-dimer (221 ng/mL [138 to 577]), prothrombin time (21.4 seconds [19.6 to 23.7]), activated partial thromboplastin time (24.8 seconds [22.5 to 27.4]), and fibrinogen (336 mg/dL [280 to 429]). Conclusions: Tracings generated by VCM Vet and TEG were clinically similar, and there was visual agreement and minimal difference between quantitative variables for duplicate tests. Clinical Relevance: VCM Vet is a user-friendly, portable device that demonstrates promise for assessing coagulation in southern white rhinoceros.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Management of Achalasia: A Disease Hard to Swallow

  2025-01-01

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• ANAESTHETIC MANAGEMENT OF THE COMMANDO PROCEDURE FOR INFECTIVE ENDOCARDITIS: A SINGLE-CENTER EXPERIENCE

  Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia · 2025-11-10

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Factors Affecting Sleep Among Dogs and Cats in a Veterinary Intensive Care Unit

  Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care · 2025-05-01 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the amount of sleep obtained by hospitalized dogs and cats in an intensive care setting and to identify factors that may impact veterinary patients' sleep. DESIGN: A prospective, observational study spanning a 4-week period in June of 2020. SETTING: Academic teaching hospital. ANIMALS: A total of 96 dogs and 16 cats hospitalized in the ICU during the 4-week study period. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Patient activity was categorized as active, resting, or asleep and was recorded along with ICU environmental data on an hourly basis. Environmental data consisted of subjective assessment of noise level, ambient lighting, number of people present, and number of hospitalized patients. The median observed time asleep was 40% and 11% for dogs and cats, respectively. During natural nighttime hours (9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.), the odds of a patient being asleep were 1.7 times higher if lights were dimmed (p < 0.001). Patients were also less likely to be asleep with higher noise levels (odds ratio 0.66 for each increase in noise level, p = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Hospitalized dogs and cats experience sleep disturbances similar to those reported in human ICU patients. Ambient noise and light are significant factors contributing to sleep disruption in cats and dogs hospitalized in a veterinary ICU. The findings of this study support implementing efforts to promote patient sleep through environmental modifications in the veterinary intensive care setting. Additional research is needed to establish objective means of assessing sleep in hospitalized dogs and cats, to determine sleep patterns of hospitalized veterinary patients, and to quantify the impact of sleep disturbances on veterinary patient convalescence.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Dogs with sudden acquired retinal degeneration syndrome have evidence of a hypercoagulable state and decreased clot turnover

  Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association · 2025-11-12

  article

  Objective: To evaluate plasma from dogs with sudden acquired retinal degeneration syndrome (SARDS) for coagulability, extent of clot turnover, and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) concentrations. Methods: Archived (2016 to 2017) or fresh (2023 to 2024) citrated plasma was collected (jugular venipuncture) at a university clinic from dogs with confirmed SARDS and controls (age, breed, and sex matched to a dog with SARDS). Light absorbance fibrinolysis assay assessed clot formation (clot formation velocity, peak optical density [POD], and area under the curve [AUC]) and degradation (percent clot lysis at 30 to 60 minutes, clot lysis velocity). Concentrations of PAI-1 were measured (ELISA). Results were analyzed with the Wilcoxon signed rank test, Spearman correlation, and multiple logistic regression. Results: There were 6 dogs with confirmed SARDS in the pilot study and 10 in the prospective study. Dogs with SARDS had higher POD and AUC than controls (POD median difference [MD] = 306 milliabsorbance units [mAU; pilot], 356 mAU [prospective]; AUC MD = 1,900 AU [pilot], 6,775 AU [prospective]), indicating greater extent of clot formation. Dogs with acute SARDS (< 6 months' duration; n = 11) had higher POD (MD = 382 mAU), AUC (MD = 4,857 AU), and clot formation velocity (MD = 0.6 mAU/s), indicating greater strength and rate of clot formation. Dogs with acute SARDS also had lower clot lysis at 30 minutes (MD = -16%) and 60 minutes (MD = -22%), indicating reduced clot lysis. The combined fibrinolysis assay outcomes allowed excellent differentiation between dogs with SARDS and controls (area under the receiver operating curve, 0.93). There was no difference in PAI-1 plasma concentrations between groups. Conclusions: Dogs with SARDS are hypercoagulable with evidence of decreased clot turnover in the acute stage. Clinical Relevance: Dogs with SARDS are hypercoagulable; reduced clot lysis may contribute to thrombus-associated ischemic risk.

  PublisherDOI

• P4.15C.02 Palliative Care Impact on Time Toxicity Among Patients with Advanced Lung Cancer at the End of Life

  Journal of Thoracic Oncology · 2024-10-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Laura Ruterbories

  Center for Marine Sciences and Technology

  41 shared

• Emily F. Christiansen

  North Carolina Aquarium

  28 shared

• Craig A. Harms

  North Carolina State University

  28 shared

• Elizabeth A. Rozanski

  Tufts University

  26 shared

• Mark G. Papich

  North Carolina State University

  21 shared

• Alyx Tracy

  North Carolina State University

  19 shared

• Nolan V. Chalifoux

  Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

  19 shared

• Gareth J. Buckley

  18 shared

Education

• Bachelor of Veterinary Science

  University of Bristol

  2009