Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Autoimmune brain inflammation in three dogs not helped
By Jung, Dong-In et al.·Published in The Journal of veterinary medical science·2013·Research Institute of Life Sciences, South Korea·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Unsuccessful cyclosporine plus prednisolone therapy for autoimmune meningoencephalitis in three dogs.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 4-year-old female Maltese, a 9-year-old male shih tzu, and a 2-year-old female Pomeranian were brought in with neurological symptoms like head tilt, unsteady walking, circling, and weakness. They were diagnosed with meningoencephalitis, a serious brain inflammation, and treated with a combination of cyclosporine and prednisolone, but unfortunately, their conditions did not improve. The Maltese survived for 170 days, the shih tzu for 70 days, and the Pomeranian for just 21 days before they passed away. Further examinations revealed specific types of brain inflammation that contributed to their short survival times despite treatment.
People also search for: dog head tilt treatment · shih tzu neurological problems · Pomeranian brain inflammation symptoms
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 on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23955394/