DEGENERATIVE MYELOPATHY

Degenerative myelopathy (MD) is a neurodegenerative disease of the spinal cord that affects, especially in the initial stages, the thoraco-lumbar tract and which causes progressive demyelination and axonal degeneration preferentially affecting the dorsolateral portion of the white matter.

Although until a few years ago it was known as German Shepherd Myelopathy, MD is found in adult / elderly subjects of any size and breed and cases have also been reported in cats.

Its course is slowly progressive and with a fatal outcome due to the onset of conditions such as tetraparesis / quadriplegia and the dog's inability to feed, respectively due to the involvement of the more cranial parts of the spinal cord and cranial nerves.

In vivo the diagnosis is presumptive and subsequent to the exclusion of pathologies that enter into differential diagnosis with degenerative myelopathy, such as chronic discopathies or disc protrusions and neoplasms.

For this purpose, the clinical approach includes a general and neurological physical examination, blood chemistry, ultrasound and radiological examinations as well as advanced imaging diagnostics in order to efficiently study the bone compartment outside the medullary canal and the subarachnoid space (for this purpose CT associated with myelography is used) and to distinguish the spinal cord from adjacent structures (using magnetic resonance imaging).

In the diagnosis of degenerative myelopathy, a genetic test helps to identify mutations involving the gene coding for SuperOxide Dismutase 1 (SOD 1) and which are considered predisposing factors for the development of this disease; however, these are mutations with incomplete penetrance and not all carriers of the same are affected by MD; therefore, it is believed that other conditions not yet well defined, probably related to the environment, other genes and longevity, must intervene in order for the disease to manifest itself.