Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog with seizures diagnosed with unexpected brain death by PET scan
By Yoonhoi Koo et al.·Published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science·2022·View original on DOAJ →
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Original publication title: Case report: Absent fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in a dog with unexpected brain death
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 5-year-old male Maltese was brought in after experiencing generalized tonic seizures (a type of seizure that causes stiffening and shaking) and difficulty with coordination. An MRI showed some unusual brain changes, and a special imaging test revealed no brain activity, indicating that the dog was likely brain dead. Unfortunately, the dog did not show any signs of spontaneous breathing or brainstem reflexes for over 24 hours after anesthesia was stopped. The suspected cause of this tragic outcome was related to the anesthesia used during treatment.
People also search for: dog seizures treatment · Maltese brain death · anesthesia risks in dogs
Abstract
A 5-year-old male Maltese dog was presented with generalized tonic seizures and hypermetria. Multiple nodular subcortical cerebellar enhancements and meningeal enhancement were observed on magnetic resonance imaging. Fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography was performed due to suspicion of neoplastic disease, and no fluorodeoxyglucose uptake was observed in the intracranial structures. In PET images of this dog, absent fluorodeoxyglucose uptake was identified in the brain indicating no cerebral metabolism, strongly suggested brain death. The dog had no spontaneous breathing and no brainstem reflexes for more than 24 h after the termination of anesthesia. Through these results, this dog was diagnosed with unexpected brain death, and it is presumed that the cause was anesthesia. We report herein a case of brain death in a dog diagnosed using fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography.
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Search related cases →Original publication on DOAJ: https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.902475