Porencephaly and cortical dysplasia as cause of seizures in a dog

BMC Veterinary Research 2012, 8:246

Gisele Fabrino Machado, 

 Maria-Gisela Laranjeira, Augusto Schweigert and Guilherme Dias de Melo

Abstract
Background: Seizures are a common problem in small animal neurology and it may be related to underlying
diseases. Porencephaly is an extremely rare disorder, and in Veterinary Medicine it affects more often ruminants,with only few reports in dogs.
Case presentation: A one-year-old intact male Shih-Tzu dog was referred to Veterinary University Hospital with history of abnormal gait and generalized tonic-clonic seizures. Signs included hypermetria, abnormal nystagmus and increased myotatic reflexes. At necropsy, during the brain analysis, a cleft was observed in the left parietal and occipital lobes, creating a communication between the subarachnoid space and the left lateral ventricle, consistent with porencephaly; and also a focal atrophy of the caudal paravermal and vermal portions of the cerebellum. Furthermore, the histological examination showed cortical and cerebellar neuronal dysplasia.
Conclusions: Reports of seizures due to porencephaly are rare in dogs. In this case, the dog presented a group of brain abnormalities which per se or in assemblage could result in seizure manifestation.
Keywords: Brain, Canine, Central nervous system diseases, Cerebellum, Hippocampus, Neuropathology

http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1746-6148-8-246.pdf

Transcranial Doppler sonographic findings in granulomatous meningoencephalitis in small breed dogs

Autores: Cibele Figueira Carvalho, Raquel Braga Perez, Maria Cristina Chamas, Paulo Cesar Maiorka

Can Vet J 2012;53:855–859

Abstract — Granulomatous meningoencephalitis (GME) is an acute, progressive, and often fatal inflammatory disease of the central nervous system, affecting mainly small and toy dog breeds. A definitive diagnosis of GME can only be achieved through histopathologic examination of samples collected after death. This retrospective study describes transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (TDS) findings in dogs with confirmed clinical histopathology of GME. Eleven dogs were selected for this study. Sonographic findings in B-mode demonstrated diffuse decreased brain parenchyma echogenicity in 9 dogs, ventriculomegaly in 8 dogs, brain atrophy in 4 dogs, and hyperechoic focal lesions in 6 dogs. Color Doppler imaging revealed more obvious vessels of the arterial circle in 10 dogs. Spectral Doppler examination was performed in 10 dogs to detect the 6 major cerebral arteries of interest. The examination showed normal and high resistive index (RI) values in the outlined arteries. The TDS findings were consistent with pathology found on postmortem examination


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3398522/pdf/cvj_08_855.pdf