%0 Journal Article
%T Calcification of intervertebral discs in the dachshund: a radiographic and histopathologic study of 20 dogs
%A £¿yvind Stigen
%A £¿yvor Kolbj£¿rnsen
%J Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica
%D 2007
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1751-0147-49-39
%X The intervertebral discs of 20 dachshunds were subjected to a radiographic and histopathologic examination. The dogs were selected randomly from clinical cases euthanased for reasons unrelated to research at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science. Lateral radiographs were taken of the vertebral columns after removing them from the carcasses. The histopathologic examination included 5 ¦Ìm thick sections in the transverse plane, stained with hematoxylin-eosin and von Kossa. Radiographs and histological sections were evaluated independently.A total of 148 (28.5%) calcified discs were identified at the radiographic and 230 (45.7%) at the histopathologic examination. Of 92 discs found to be calcified by histopathology, but not by radiography, the degree of calcification was evaluated as 'slight' in 84 (91.3%). All the intervertebral discs (n = 138) that were found to be calcified by radiography were also found to be calcified by histopathology.A sensitivity of 0.6 and specificity of 1.0 for radiography was calculated when using histopathology as the gold standard.Intervertebral disc disease (IDD) is the most common cause of neurologic dysfunction in the dog [1]. The disease is most often diagnosed in dachshunds, and in 8117 canine cases of IDD, Priester [2] found 3898 (48.0%) to occur in this breed. The breed prevalence of IDD in the dachshund has been estimated to be 19.0% [3].In dachshunds and other chondrodystrophoid breeds, IDD is mainly due to extrusion of nuclear material from the disc into the vertebral canal. Hansen [4] classified this type of disc disease as protrusion of type 1 and found chondroid degenerative changes of the disc with subsequent dystrophic calcification of the nucleus to be significant preceding factors. In accordance with this, radiographic studies have shown that young dachshunds with calcified intervertebral discs are predisposed to IDD [5,6].The occurrence of calcified discs is found to differ between dachshunds of the same age, size and
%U http://www.actavetscand.com/content/49/1/39