Case report: Presumptive subcutaneous malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor with intracranial invasion and osteolysis in the posterior fossa of a dog.

A 13-year-old castrated male Toy Poodle presented with an acute vestibular disorder. Magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography revealed a large oval space-occupying mass with skull destruction located from the subcutaneous tissue to the posterior fossa region. Histopathologically, the mass was a bundled growth of spindle-shaped mesenchymal tumor cells between the myofibrillar and collagen bundles. The cells were moderately irregular in size and had eosinophilic stained cytoplasm. The cells were highly atypical and had rare mitotic figures. Neoplastic cells were immunoreactive for S100, GFAP, Olig-2, SOX10 and immunonegative for NF, E-cadherin, and Claudin-1. Collective findings were presumptive with a diagnosis of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor.

Outcomes of dogs with progressive myelomalacia treated with hemilaminectomy or with extensive hemilaminectomy and durotomy.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the ability of extensive hemilaminectomy and durotomy (EHLD) to control progressive myelomalacia (PMM) in dogs. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective clinical study. ANIMALS: Twenty-eight client owned dogs that underwent EHLD (n = 10) or HL alone (n = 18). METHODS: After diagnosis by MRI, dogs were immediately treated with HL alone or EHLD at the site of intramedullary hyperintensity on T2-weighted (T2W)-MRI. Medical records were retrospectively reviewed. Follow-up data were collected via telephone interviews with the referring veterinarian and a standardized questionnaire. Postoperative survival outcome between groups was compared (log-rank test) by using Cox's proportional hazard analysis with baseline characteristics entered as covariates. RESULTS: The survival rate was higher in the EHLD group (P = .03) compared with the HL-alone group. Eleven of 18 dogs treated with HL survived, while seven of 18 dogs died (median, 5 days after surgery). In the EHLD group, 10 of 10 dogs survived postoperatively. Baseline characteristics were not associated with postoperative survival outcomes. According to multivariate analysis, EHLD was the independent factor associated with an increase in survival rate (P = .0002). CONCLUSION: EHLD durotomy at the intramedullary hyperintense region on T2W-MRI improved the survival rate of dogs with PMM compared with dogs treated with standard HL. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: This study provides evidence that supports treatment with EHLD in dogs with PMM. Additional prospective studies are required.

Feline neurological diseases in a veterinary neurology referral hospital population in Japan.

Many of the reports summarizing neurological disorders in cats considered only a limited disease group(s). There is only one large-scale survey on neurological disorders in cats based on the histopathological viewpoint. We described the localizations and frequencies of neurological diseases in a large population of cats that were referred to the Kyoto Animal Referral Medical Center between 2009 and 2016. We attempted to determine the localization of lesions at the time of the examination in each case and to classify the disease etiologies of these 276 cats with neurological disorders retrospectively. There were 174 cases with lesions in the brain region, 14 cases with lesions in the cervical cord region, 34 cases with lesions in the thoracolumbar cord region, and 54 cases with lesions in the peripheral neuromuscular region. High morbidity rates were observed in cases of idiopathic epilepsy and intracranial tumor in the brain region, spinal cord infarction in the cervical cord region, spinal cord infarction and spinal cord tumor in the thoracolumbar cord region, and peripheral vestibular dysfunction arising from otitis media/interna in the peripheral neuromuscular region. It was suggested that there is a higher number of brain diseases than spinal cord and peripheral neuromuscular diseases in cats. Idiopathic and neoplastic diseases were common in the brain region, vascular diseases were common in the spinal cord region, and infectious diseases were common in the peripheral neuromuscular region.