Feline ischaemic myelopathy with a predilection for the cranial cervical spinal cord in older cats

Abstract

All previous studies on feline ischaemic myelopathy (IM) have reported an acute onset of a single event with no recurrence of clinical signs. This study aimed to evaluate clinical and long-term follow-up data in cats presumptively diagnosed with cervical IM in the territory of the ventral spinal artery (VSA). Eight cats (four females and four males) were included with a mean age of 14 years and 2 months. Neurological status at the time of presentation ranged from ambulatory tetraparesis to tetraplegia with nociception present. Six cats had marked cervical ventroflexion. All eight cats were diagnosed with one or more concurrent medical conditions, including chronic kidney disease (n = 2), hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (n = 2) and hypertension (n = 6). Median time to ambulation was 5.7 days (range 2-14 days). Long-term follow-up ranged from 7 months to 3 years and 3 months (median 1 year and 2 months). Five cats had no reported recurrence of clinical signs and 3/8 had a chronic relapsing disease course. One cat had an acute recurrence of clinical signs 4 months after the first event and was euthanased. Two cats had acute onsets of suspected intracranial infarctions, one of which had further suspected intracranial infarcts every 3 months and was euthanased after one of these. This study highlights the importance of performing ancillary diagnostic tests in older cats presenting with IM, particularly when VSA embolisation is suspected.