Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Neurologic signs linked to MRI in 100 dogs with neck spinal disease
By Bonelli, Marília de Albuquerque et al.·Published in Veterinary radiology & ultrasound : the official journal of the American College of Veterinary Radiology and the International Veterinary Radiology Association·2021·Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Association of neurologic signs with high-field MRI findings in 100 dogs with osseous-associated cervical spondylomyelopathy.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 3-year-old Great Dane was brought in for weakness and difficulty walking due to a condition called osseous-associated cervical spondylomyelopathy (OA-CSM), which affects the spinal cord. The veterinarian used high-field MRI to check for spinal cord compression and found that many dogs with OA-CSM had multiple areas of compression, which was linked to more severe symptoms. Most of the affected dogs were large or giant breeds, and many showed signs of intervertebral disc degeneration. Treatment options typically include pain management and possibly surgery, depending on the severity of the condition, and many dogs can improve with appropriate care.
People also search for: Great Dane weakness · dog spinal cord compression treatment · OA-CSM in dogs · dog walking difficulties · large breed dog health issues
Abstract
Although osseous-associated cervical spondylomyelopathy (OA-CSM) findings have been well described using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), there are no large-scale published studies on the associations between dog size, age, high-field MRI and neurologic findings. Using a retrospective, observational study design, we aimed to investigate an association between neurologic and high-field MRI characteristics in OA-CSM. Records were reviewed for dogs diagnosed with OA-CSM using high-field MRI. One-hundred dogs were included: 73/100 (73%) were giant breeds, 27/100 (27%) large breeds. Mean and median ages were, respectively, 3.1 and 2 years (0.3-9.75 years), with 2.6 and 2 years for giant-breed; and 4.4 and 4 years for large-breed dogs. The majority of dogs were male (75%) with chronic presentation (89%), more than one site of spinal cord compression (78%) and foraminal stenosis (91%). Dogs with multiples sites of spinal cord compression were more likely to have severe spinal cord compression (p < 0.001), severe foraminal stenosis (p < 0.001) and ligamentum flavum/soft tissue proliferation (p = 0.03) than those with a single compressive site. There was a weak correlation between neurologic grade and severity of spinal cord compression (r = 0.27; p = 0.007), number of affected sites (r = 0.24; p = 0.0183) and spinal cord T2W hyperintensity (r = 0.24; p = 0.0152). Intervertebral disc degeneration was seen in 80% of dogs. Age did not appear to have a prominent role in the manifestation of OA-CSM. This study showed that OA-CSM affects a sizeable proportion of young large-breed, in addition to giant-breed dogs.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34370359/