Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
MRI detects abdominal lymph node spread better than ultrasound
By Anderson, C L et al.·Published in Veterinary and comparative oncology·2015·Department of Oncology, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Comparison of abdominal ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging for detection of abdominal lymphadenopathy in dogs with metastatic apocrine gland adenocarcinoma of the anal sac.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of six dogs with a type of cancer called apocrine gland adenocarcinoma of the anal sac were tested to see how well two imaging methods, abdominal ultrasound (AUS) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), could find swollen lymph nodes in the abdomen. The ultrasound only detected swollen lymph nodes in two of the dogs, while the MRI found them in all six. This suggests that MRI is better at spotting these issues in dogs with this specific cancer. Based on these findings, vets might recommend MRI for better staging of the disease in affected dogs.
People also search for: dog anal sac cancer treatment · MRI for dog lymph nodes · abdominal ultrasound vs MRI for dogs
Abstract
Imaging studies in humans with anal and rectal cancer indicate that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a more sensitive technique than abdominal ultrasound (AUS) for the detection of abdominal lymphadenopathy. The purpose of this retrospective study was to directly compare the efficacy of these two techniques in detecting abdominal lymphadenopathy in dogs with apocrine gland adenocarcinoma of the anal sac (AGAAS). Six dogs with histologically confirmed AGAAS and histopathologic confirmation of metastasis to abdominal lymph nodes (LNs) had AUS and abdominal MRI. AUS identified lymphadenopathy in two of six dogs, whereas MRI identified lymphadenopathy in all the six dogs. Lymphadenopathy was predominantly sacral in location, with involvement of the medial iliac and hypogastric LNs in only two cases. These data suggest that MRI is more sensitive than AUS for detecting sacral abdominal lymphadenopathy in dogs with AGAAS. As such, MRI could be considered in any patient with AGAAS for initial staging of this disease.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23432735/