MRI FINDINGS OF THE CERVICAL SPINE IN THREE BEAGLE DOGS

摘要

Degenerative disc disease is a condition of the spine caused by dehydration and degeneration of intervertebral discsbeing an inevitable process with increasing age of the animals. These changes can lead to clinical and pathologicaldiseases characterized differently, such as Hansen type II (protrusion) and Hansen type I (extrusion) disc disease.Medical records of three Beagle dogs, aged 3-8 years, who were presented in the clinic of the Faculty of VeterinaryMedicine of Bucharest with neurological features, were reviewed. Animals were evaluated by radiographic and MRIimaging. Radiographic examination was conducted in lateral incidence at the level of cervical segment. MRI imageswere obtained with a low field magnetic resonance of 0.3 Tesla, through: T1 SE (spin echo), T2 FSE (fast spin echo)and T1 sequences after the administration of contrast agent, dogs were positioned in lateral decubitus under inhalatoryanesthesia.Radiographic examination revealed narrowing of the intervertebral space in two cases, at the level of C2-C3. MRIexamination revealed intervertebral disc degeneration and dehydration at a total number of eight discs in the cervicalsegment from all three cases. Hansen type II (protrusion) compression on the spinal cord has been registered in onecase at C3-C4 level, and in two cases was detected Hansen type I (extrusion) at C2-C3 level, with the movement of thedisc fragments in the spine, confirmed by radiographic examination.Magnetic resonance imaging has provided a useful, safe, non-invasive evaluation of the cervical spinal cord.