Spontaneous ischaemic stroke lesions in a dog brain: neuropathological characterisation and comparison to human ischaemic stroke

Abstract

BackgroundDogs develop spontaneous ischaemic stroke with a clinical picture closely resembling human ischaemic stroke patients. Animal stroke models have been developed, but it has proved difficult to translate results obtained from such models into successful therapeutic strategies in human stroke patients. In order to face this apparent translational gap within stroke research, dogs with ischaemic stroke constitute an opportunity to study the neuropathology of ischaemic stroke in an animal species.Case presentationA 7 years and 8 months old female neutered Rottweiler dog suffered a middle cerebral artery infarct and was euthanized 3 days after onset of neurological signs. The brain was subjected to histopathology and immunohistochemistry. Neuropathological changes were characterised by a pan-necrotic infarct surrounded by peri-infarct injured neurons and reactive microglia/macrophages and astrocytes.ConclusionsThe neuropathological changes reported in the present study were similar to findings in human patients with ischaemic stroke. The dog with spontaneous ischaemic stroke is of interest as a complementary spontaneous animal model for further neuropathological studies.

Neuropathological findings suggestive for a stroke in an alpaca (Vicugna pacos)

“…This parasite, however, is restricted to North America, and to our knowledge no confirmed cases of brain infarcts related to intravascular parasites have been reported in alpacas or llamas. The failure to detect a thromboembolic event at the time of the post mortem investigation may be explained by the chronicity of the lesion [10].…”

“…The term stroke refers to an ischemic or hemorrhagic brain injury in association with overt neurological deficits such as sensory and motor deficits and/or pain [10, 11, 25]. Notably, the presented alpaca did not show obvious neurological symptoms, which is likely attributed to the location of the brain lesion.…”

“…Cardiovascular accidents in domestic animals are less commonly reported and most cases of spontaneous brain infarcts have been described for cats and dogs [8–10]. In dogs, they are most frequently attributed to different types of emboli, although a hypercoagulable status is also recognized as an important factor [11, 12].…”

Conventional and functional magnetic resonance imaging features of late subacute cortical laminar necrosis in a dog

“…1,5,7 In dogs, CLN occurs secondary to hypoxia, hypoglycemia, fluid overload, smoke inhalation, ischemic stroke, encephalitis, and prolonged seizure activity, being diagnosed mostly through postmortem histopathologic examinations. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Magnetic resonance imaging characterization of CLN in dogs is limited and comprises examinations…”

“…performed with low-field and in 1 case with high-field 1.5-Tesla MRI scanners. 8,13,14 In human medicine, diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and perfusion-weighted imaging (PWI) are commonly utilized for ischemic, hypoxic, or both brain lesion characterization. [16][17][18][19] Diffusion-weighted imaging, including apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps, allows more accurate identification of regions with restricted diffusion compared to conventional MRI sequences.…”