Correlation between clinical severity and type and degree of pectus excavatum in twelve brachycephalic dogs

Abstract

The aim of the study was to correlate the clinical severity of pectus excavatum with its type and degree based on objective radiographic evaluation. Twelve brachycephalic dogs were included. Grading of the clinical severity was done based on a 6-point grading score. Thoracic radiographs were used to calculate the frontosagittal and vertebral indices at the tenth thoracic vertebra and the vertebra overlying the excavatum. Correlation between the clinical severity score and frontosagittal and vertebral indices was evaluated using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Typical pectus excavatum was recorded in the caudal sternum in seven dogs, with a mean clinical severity score of 1.7 ± 1.4, whereas in five dogs, atypical mid-sternal deviation was recorded with a mean clinical severity score of 3.8 ± 0.7. A strong correlation (r=0.7) was recorded between the clinical severity score and vertebral index in the atypical form, whereas a weak correlation (r=0.02) was recorded in the typical form (P<0.05). The clinical severity and degree of pectus excavatum was poorly correlated (r=0.3) in the typical form of pectus excavatum, whereas it was strongly correlated (r=0.9) in the atypical form. Pectus excavatum in dogs is associated with compressive cardiopulmonary dysfunction, which depends mainly on the site/type of deviation rather than the degree of deviation.

Prevalence of pectus excavatum (PE), pectus carinatum (PC), tracheal hypoplasia, thoracic spine deformities and lateral heart displacement in thoracic radiographs of screw-tailed brachycephalic dogs

“…In 1989, Fossum (1989) stated that in 8 dogs diagnosed with this defect, 7 were brachycephalic dogs [33]. Fossum (2007) and Hassan (2018) also indicate that pectus excavatum frequently occured in brachycephalic dogs [1, 3]. An important factor included by that the authors of this paper was a retrospective study that encompassed dogs of the selected brachycephalic breeds, with radiographic examinations of the thorax, regardless of the clinical symptoms.…”

“…However, while the presence of PE was observed in dogs of all the studied breeds, the greatest risk of PE occurrence was found in two breeds: Maltese and English Bulldog (60% and 58.3%, respectively). Such a high percentage of dogs with diagnosed PE should indicate a necessity to re-evaluate the hereditary nature of this defect, as suggested by other authors [3, 5, 7]. To date it has not been possible to identify the genes responsible for the development of PE in dogs [7, 16, 30, 33].…”

“…The tests failed to confirm the second hypothesis, which stipulated that there was a statistically significant relation between the presence of PE or PC and thoracic spine deformity, tracheal hypoplasia or lateral heart displacement. In the available veterinary literature, information about the co-occurrence of PE and vertebral deformities in dogs of brachycephalic breeds is often quoted [1, 3–5, 7, 15]. The coexistence of spine deformities (especially scoliosis) with PE or PC is often noted in humans as well [10–12, 41].…”

“…In each dog, the presence of the following qualitative characteristics was analysed: PE (broken down into types based on anatomic location of the defect, typical: ventrodorsal deviation of the sternum including the caudal sternum between 5 th -8 th sternebrae /atypical: ventrodorsal deviation of the sternum encompassed the cranial or mid-sternal region) (Fig 1A) [3, 16], PC (Fig 2), kyphosis and scoliosis of the thoracic spine, tracheal hypoplasia, as well as right-sided and left-sided heart displacement.…”

Toxoplasma Gondii ROP17 Promotes Autophagy via the Bcl-2–Beclin 1 Pathway

“…Pearson coe cient was used to analyse correlations between the expression of ROP17 with the expression of autophagy markers LC3B, beclin 1 and p62, and with phosphorylation of Bcl-2 and Bcl-2. An r-value ≥ 0.5 was considered as strong correlation, and an r-value < 0.5 was considered as poor correlation [14]. A p-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically signi cant.…”