Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How to tell if a dog with brain tumor has high brain pressure
By Giannasi, Savannah et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary internal medicine·2020·Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Comparison of direct measurement of intracranial pressures and presumptive clinical and magnetic resonance imaging indicators of intracranial hypertension in dogs with brain tumors.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 20 dogs with brain tumors (gliomas) underwent tests to see if their symptoms and MRI results could predict high pressure inside the skull (intracranial hypertension). The study found that while MRI features like brain swelling and changes in the optic nerve were helpful in identifying dogs with high pressure, the clinical signs alone were not reliable. Direct measurements of pressure showed that dogs with MRI-predicted high pressure had significantly higher levels than those predicted to have normal pressure. This means that MRI can be a useful tool for diagnosing high intracranial pressure in dogs with brain tumors.
People also search for: dog brain tumor symptoms · MRI for dog brain pressure · high intracranial pressure in dogs
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Intracranial hypertension (ICH) is often presumptively diagnosed based on clinical or imaging findings. Clinical or imaging surrogates of ICH are not usually validated with reference standard direct intracranial pressure (dICP) recordings. HYPOTHESES: Dogs with brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or clinical features of presumed ICH would have higher dICP than dogs lacking those features. ANIMALS: Twenty dogs with gliomas and 3 normal controls. METHODS: Prospective, convenience study. Dogs were presumptively categorized with normal ICP or ICH from scores generated from described clinical and brain MRI indicators of ICH. dICP was recorded in anesthetized dogs using an intraparenchymal microsensor and compared between groups. RESULTS: dICP was not different between control (10.4 ± 2.1 mm Hg) and dogs with glioma (15.6 ± 8.3 mm Hg), or between dogs in clinically predicted ICP groups. Compared with dogs with MRI-predicted normal ICP, MRI-predicted ICH dogs had higher dICP (10.3 ± 4.1 versus 19.2 ± 7.9 mm Hg, P = .004), larger tumors (1.45 ± 1.2 versus 5.71 ± 3.03 cm, P = .0004), larger optic nerve sheath diameters, and 14/14 (100%) displayed structural anatomical shifts on MRI. At a dICP threshold of 15 mm Hg, the sensitivity of MRI for predicting ICH was 90% and the specificity 69%. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: dICP measurements are feasible in dogs with brain tumors. MRI features including brain herniations, mass effect, and optic nerve size aid in the identification of dogs with ICH. Clinical estimation of ICP did not discriminate between dogs with and without ICH.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32415794/