Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Brain blood flow changes in epileptic dogs seen with SPECT scan
By Martlé, Valentine et al.·Published in Veterinary radiology & ultrasound : the official journal of the American College of Veterinary Radiology and the International Veterinary Radiology Association·2009·Department of Small Animal Medicine and Clinical Biology·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Regional brain perfusion in epileptic dogs evaluated by technetium-99m-ethyl cysteinate dimer SPECT.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 12 dogs with idiopathic epilepsy (a type of epilepsy with no known cause) underwent a special brain scan to check for changes in blood flow. The scans showed that these dogs had reduced blood flow in a specific area of the brain, but this was not linked to how often they had seizures or how long they had been experiencing them. Interestingly, other areas of the brain did not show any changes. This suggests that the subcortical area might be important in understanding epilepsy in dogs.
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Abstract
We evaluated the feasibility of interictal single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) to detect alterations in regional cerebral blood flow and neuronal activity in dogs with idiopathic epilepsy. Twelve dogs with idiopathic epilepsy underwent interictal technetium-99m-ethyl cysteinate dimer SPECT of the brain. Different cortical regions of interest (ROIs), 1 ROI at the cerebellum and 1 ROI at the subcortical area were evaluated by semiquantitative analysis and compared with a control group (18 dogs). Significant hypoperfusion (P = 0.02) was present in the subcortical area of epileptic dogs. This hypoperfusion was not associated with seizure frequency, age at onset of seizures, duration of epilepsy, or time since the last seizure. Interictal SPECT did not reveal cortical or cerebellar perfusion alterations. The subcortical area may play an important role in the pathophysiology of canine idiopathic epilepsy.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19999353/