Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog with neck spinal cord compression from enlarged vertebral arteries
By Bozynski, C C et al.·Published in Veterinary pathology·2012·University of Missouri, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Compressive myelopathy associated with ectasia of the vertebral and spinal arteries in a dog.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 4-year-old dog was brought in because it was having trouble moving its legs and was in pain around its neck. An MRI showed that the spinal cord was being compressed due to enlarged blood vessels in the neck area. Unfortunately, the dog had severe damage to the spinal cord and surrounding tissues, which was found during a post-mortem examination. This condition, caused by the abnormal enlargement of the arteries, led to significant nerve damage. Sadly, the dog did not recover.
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Abstract
A 4-year-old dog was presented for acute, progressive tetraparesis and cervical hyperesthesia. Symmetrical tubular structures coursing along the lateroventral aspects of the spinal cord at the fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae were identified in magnetic resonance images. At necropsy, vertebral arteries and their spinal branches were severely ectatic bilaterally, and the cervical spinal cord was compressed. Histologically, the ectatic branches of the vertebral and ventral spinal arteries were surrounded by fibrosis with scant mononuclear cell infiltrates and hemorrhage. Spinal branches of the vertebral arteries had focally severe reduction in the tunica media. A thrombus was in an arterial branch. Smaller vessels in adjacent tissue had fibrinoid degeneration. Axonal degeneration was detected in the affected spinal cord and nerve roots. The segmental degenerative radiculomyelopathy in this dog was attributed to anomalous ectasia of the vertebral and ventral spinal arteries.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21856870/