Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
MRI shows metastatic heart tumor causing neck pain and leg lameness
By Naudé, S H & Miller, D B·Published in Journal of the South African Veterinary Association·2006·Department of Companion Animal Clinical Studies·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Magnetic resonance imaging findings of a metastatic chemodectoma in a dog.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 6-year-old male Collie-cross was brought to the vet because he was not using his right front leg and was experiencing severe neck pain. An MRI showed that he had significant damage to his cervical vertebrae and compression of the spinal cord, which was caused by a large tumor at the base of his heart that had spread to other areas. Unfortunately, the tumor was found to be malignant, and despite the advanced imaging that helped identify the problem, the prognosis was poor due to the extent of the disease.
People also search for: dog neck pain · Collie tumor diagnosis · metastatic chemodectoma treatment
Abstract
A 6-year-old, male, Collie-cross was presented with a non-weight bearing right thoracic limb lameness, right m. deltoideus, m. infraspinatus and m. supraspinatus atrophy, and severe neck pain with spasm of the cervical epaxial muscles. MRI revealed complete destruction of the 5th and 6th cervical vertebral bodies with lateral extradural spinal cord compression at the level of the 4th and 5th cervical vertebrae. These lesions were very clearly demonstrated on magnetic resonance images, while only subtle changes were seen on survey radiographs. Post mortem investigation revealed a large heart base chemodectoma with multiple smaller tumours in the cranial mediastinum and a single tumour nodule on the thoracic aorta. The 5th cervical vertebral body had necrotic, haemorrhagic and lytic changes. Histopathology of the heart base tumour, the nodules in the cranial mediastinum and on the thoracic aorta and samples from the 5th cervical vertebra confirmed the presence of a malignant aortic or carotid body tumour originating from the chemoreceptor organs. Diagnostic imaging features and post mortem findings are described. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the magnetic resonance features of a metastatic chemodectoma in a dog.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17137058/