Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Cat with chronic muscle weakness caused by nemaline myopathy
By Kube, Stephanie A et al.·Published in Neuromuscular disorders : NMD·2006·Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Congenital myopathy with abundant nemaline rods in a cat.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A 2-year-old male domestic shorthaired cat was brought to the vet because he was getting weaker over time and had fine tremors. Tests showed that his muscle fibers had unusual rod-shaped structures, which are linked to a condition called nemaline myopathy. While the exact cause of his symptoms wasn't fully understood, the vet noted that there were also signs of protein buildup in his muscles. Unfortunately, the cat's condition was serious, and the long-term outcome was uncertain.
People also search for: cat weakness and tremors · nemaline myopathy in cats · cat muscle disease symptoms
Abstract
Nemaline myopathy is associated with rod-shaped structures in muscle fibers. At least seven distinct clinical forms have been described in humans and mutations have been identified in five different thin-filament genes. Only a few cases of spontaneously occurring nemaline myopathy have been reported in animals and include an adult-onset form in a family of cats and an early-onset form in a dog. Here, we describe a 2-year-old male, neutered, domestic shorthaired cat that was referred to the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, University of California-Davis, for evaluation of chronic, progressive weakness, and fine tremors. Neurologic deficits were restricted to the neuromuscular system. Electromyography showed mild to moderate diffuse spontaneous activity. Although rod bodies were prominent on light and electron microscopic evaluation of biopsies from several muscles, sarcoplasmic accumulations of dystrophin, desmin, and spectrin also were identified by immunohistochemistry. These findings may represent the occurrence of rod bodies in conjunction with a protein-aggregate myopathy.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16487709/