Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Unsuccessful cyclosporine plus prednisolone therapy for autoimmune meningoencephalitis in three dogs.
- Journal:
- The Journal of veterinary medical science
- Year:
- 2013
- Authors:
- Jung, Dong-In et al.
- Affiliation:
- Research Institute of Life Sciences · South Korea
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
Three dogs, a 4-year-old female Maltese, a 9-year-old male shih tzu, and a 2-year-old female Pomeranian, showed signs of neurological problems like tilting their heads, difficulty walking, circling, and weakness. They were suspected to have a serious brain condition called meningoencephalitis (inflammation of the brain and its surrounding tissues) based on imaging and fluid tests. All three dogs were treated with a combination of cyclosporine and prednisolone, but unfortunately, they did not survive long after starting treatment, living for 170, 70, and 21 days, respectively. After their passing, further examinations confirmed specific types of meningoencephalitis in each dog. Overall, the treatment did not work effectively for these cases.
Abstract
A 4-year-old female Maltese (case 1), a 9-year-old castrated male shih tzu (case 2) and 2-year-old female Pomeranian (case 3) presented with neurological signs, such as head tilt, ataxia, circling and paresis. The three cases were tentatively diagnosed as having meningoencephalitis of unknown etiology based on computed tomography scan and cerebrospinal fluid analysis. All patients were managed with cyclosporine plus prednisolone therapy. The survival times of the three patients were 170, 70 and 21 days, respectively. After the cases died, we performed necropsy and histopathological examination for definitive diagnosis. Based on the necropsy, histopathological and immunohistochemical examinations, cases 1, 2 and 3 were definitely diagnosed as having necrotizing meningoencephalitis, necrotizing leukoencephalitis and granulomatous meningoencephalitis, respectively. This case report demonstrated the clinical findings, brain CT characteristics and histopathological and immunohistochemical features of NME, NLE and GME in dogs and discussed the reason for the relatively short survival times under cyclosporine plus prednisolone therapy.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23955394/