BackgroundComputed tomography (CT) is commonly used in veterinary medicine and plays an important role in disease identification and cancer staging. Identification of abnormal abdominal lymph nodes is important for clinical, therapeutic, and prognostic decision making. No published study describes the CT appearance of abdominal lymph nodes in healthy cats.Hypothesis/ObjectivesAll abdominal lymph centers will be identified on CT with the majority of lymph nodes being elongated and homogenously contrast enhancing.AnimalsSixteen healthy cats without clinical or biochemical evidence of disease.MethodsPrecontrast and postcontrast CT images of sedated healthy cats were used to identify the presence and descriptive characteristics of intra‐abdominal lymph nodes. These assessments then were compared with patient characteristics to identify possible correlations.ResultsAbdominal lymph nodes were readily identified on CT with caudal mesenteric, colic, hepatic, inguinal, and pancreaticoduodenal lymph nodes identified in 16/16 cats. Lymph node size and shape varied among lymph centers with nearly all lymph nodes homogeneously contrast enhancing in 515/525. Significant negative correlations were identified between age and length (P = .0166) and width (P = .0387) of abdominal lymph nodes as well as age and number of sacral lymph nodes (P = .0493). Intranodal fat was present in 18/525 lymph nodes.Conclusions and Clinical ImportanceCT readily permitted identification and characterization of feline abdominal lymph nodes. This study provides subjective and objective data on the CT characteristics of abdominal lymph nodes in 16 healthy cats, with younger cats having larger abdominal lymph nodes and a higher number of sacral lymph nodes.

CASE DESCRIPTION 3 dogs were examined because of a sudden onset of signs of pain (1 dog) or paraparesis (2 dogs). CLINICAL FINDINGS Neurologic findings consisted of myelopathy affecting the lumbar intumescence (1 dog) and T3-L3 myelopathy (2 dogs). In all dogs, MRI revealed spinal cord compression caused by L3-4 disk herniation. All dogs underwent routine surgical decompression of the intervertebral disk herniation. During MRI and decompressive surgery, physiologic variables were monitored. Immediately after surgery, all dogs were paraplegic with pelvic limb neurologic dysfunction consistent with myelopathy affecting the L4 through caudal spinal cord segments. TREATMENT AND OUTCOME Within 24 hours after surgery, repeated MRI in all dogs revealed hyperintensity in the spinal cord gray matter of the lumbar intumescence on T2-weighted images. In the absence of neurologic improvement, dogs were euthanized at 3, 91, and 34 days after surgery. Postmortem microscopic examination of each dog's spinal cord at the lumbar intumescence revealed necrosis of the gray matter with relative white matter preservation suggestive of an ischemic injury. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Dramatic neurologic deterioration following decompressive surgery for intervertebral disk herniation in dogs may be associated with the development of poliomyelomalacia secondary to ischemia. In these 3 dogs, ischemia developed despite probable maintenance of normal spinal cord blood flow and perfusion during anesthesia. To exclude other causes, such as compression or hemorrhage, MRI was repeated and revealed hyperintensity of the spinal cord gray matter on T2-weighted images, which microscopically corresponded with ischemic neurons and neuronal loss.

A 1‐year‐old dog was presented for persistent neck pain and circling. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a large, space‐occupying, intra‐axial mass with extensive surrounding vasogenic oedema affecting the left thalamus and hippocampus. Postmortem histopathology of the brain lesion identified fungal hyphae with significant local brain reaction. Fungal sequencing confirmed Cladophialophora bantiana. Magnetic resonance imaging findings can look similar to other inflammatory processes or even neoplasia. While histopathology of the lesions may not always identify fungal hyphae, it will often confirm necrosis, pyogranulomatous inflammation and perivascular cuffing with lymphocytes. Cerebral phaeohyphomycosis should be included in the differential diagnosis list in a young dog with intracranial neurologic deficits.

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