Contrast‐enhanced CT features of pyloric lesions in 17 dogs: Case series

Abstract

Pyloric outflow obstructions can be caused by several types of lesions. When a thickened gastric wall and pyloric mass are detected, malignant neoplasia must be differentiated from chronic hypertrophic pyloric gastropathy. CT can characterize gastric tumors. However, based on the authors’ review of the literature, there is limited information about the CT findings of pyloric lesions. The purpose of this retrospective case series study was to assess the CT findings of canine pyloric lesions. The following CT parameters were recorded: anatomical area, involved area, lesion shape, growth patterns of wall thickening lesions, enhancement pattern of the lesion in the early and delayed phases, lymphomegaly, and pulmonary metastasis. Seventeen dogs were included in this study and had the following final diagnoses: hyperplasia (five dogs), adenoma (five dogs), adenocarcinoma (three dogs), gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST; two dogs), polyposis (one dog), and pyogenic granuloma (one dog). Hyperplasia, adenoma, and polyposis formed mass lesions that involved the mucosal layer. Lymphomegaly was detected in two Jack Russell terriers with hyperplasia; however, the causes were unknown because we did not perform biopsies. All adenocarcinomas formed wall‐thickened lesion that involved the outer layer, with lymphomegaly. All GISTs formed mass lesion that involved the outer layer. The pyogenic granulomas formed symmetric wall‐thickened lesion that involved the mucosal and outer layers. CT facilitated the characterization of canine pyloric lesions using contrast enhancement, based on the involved area and lesion shape. However, polyposis may require caution in diagnosis based on CT findings alone.

Intramural gastric abscesses in a dog

“…In human medicine, CT is the most widely performed technique for diagnosis and staging of gastric tumours, and can be helpful for characterising a tumour (Asrani et al, 2007;Hugen et al, 2017). This has also been reported in the veterinary literature for further characterisation and staging of gastric tumours and pyloric lesions in dogs (Tanaka et al, 2023;Zuercher et al, 2021). In our case, CT was valuable to confirm the intramural location of the gastric abscesses, thus validating this modality as the diagnostic imaging test of choice for the diagnosis and localisation of IGA in dogs.…”