Canine degenerative myelopathy (DM) is an adult-onset neurodegenerative disorder with four defined disease stages. DM initially manifests as spastic upper motor neuron paraparesis and general proprioceptive ataxia (stage 1). Progressive neurodegeneration results in nonambulatory paraparesis/paraplegia (stage 2) and thoracic limb paresis (stage 3). End-stage disease culminates in flaccid tetraplegia, widespread muscle atrophy and signs of brainstem dysfunction (stage 4). The clinical spectrum of DM ishomogeneous within and across breeds. Phosphorylated neurofilament heavy (pNF-H), a major structural protein of myelinated motor axons, has shown promise as a prognostic biomarker in other diseases of the nervous system such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The goals of this study were to 1) quantify the concentration of pNF-H in the CSF of DM-affected dogs throughout disease progression and compare these finding to age-matched, neurologically normal dogs with and without SOD1 mutations and 2) compare CSF concentrations of pNF-H between DM-affected and dogs with other chronic spinal cord disease that mimic DM.
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