A retrospective clinical study of dogs presented with brain neoplasia at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of the ULPGC

Abstract

A retrospective study about intracranial neoplasms in a population of 61 dogs with a presumptive diagnosis of brain neoplasms was made at The Veterinary Teaching Hospital from University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Dogs and cats are the most common companion animals’ species diagnosed with primary brain neoplasms of the central nervous system. Brain tumors may be primary or metastatic. In the dog, primary intracranial neoplasm represents around the (2-5%) of all cancers and especially in breeds including English and French bulldogs and Boxers. The most common type of primary intracranial cancer in the dog is meningioma, followed by glioma, and choroid plexus tumors, and those generally appears in middle aged to older dogs. Those tumors are associated with several neurological changes, such as seizures, change behavior, head tilt, etc. Primary brain tumors have a chronic clinical progression. They are intracranial masses which make destroying, compression and directly invading the brain tissue. These neoplasms can be treated by a variety of methods and principally diagnosticated by computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and biopsy. For this study, a group of 61 dogs of different breeds and ages (1-20 years) with an intracranial lesion compatible to brain neoplasms were studied. From these animals we collected the following data: age, weight, date of diagnosis, breeds, haematology and biochemistry analysis and clinical signs. The most common clinical signs found in this study were, seizures followed by head tilt, behavior changes and visual problems, with a predisposition of mixed breed dogs and French bulldog. Males dogs were the most affected. Regarding to the number of clinical signs, when it increased, the prevalence in the patients decreased. The collected information was compared between different variables studied. In order to reassure relevant statistical evidence from the study, complementary studies with higher number of patients needs to be conducted. The result from the study were similar to studies with greater number of patients.