Neosporosis

Question 1

What is a common form of neosporosis in adult dogs? Whati the MRI finding and histopath finding (Garosi et al. 2010)?

Answer 1

necrotizing cerebellitis

MRI:
-bilateral symmetrical cerebellar atrophy
-T2W hyper and T1W hypointense signal surrounds the cerebellum

PM: cerebellar atrophy & multifocal nonsuppurative encephalitis with areas of malacia and leptomeningitis

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1939-1676.2010.0485.x

Question 2

What are common MRI findings in dogs with neosporosis (Parzefall et al. 2014)?

Answer 2

1) Multifocal lesions affecting the forebrain (cortex, thalamus and basal nuclei) and brainstem

2) bilateral symmetrical cerebellar atrophy

Question 3

Which is the seroprevalence of active infection of Toxoplasma and Neospora in dogs with MUO? (Coelheo et al. 2018)

Answer 3

Low.

Toxo –> 0.25%

Neo –>2.25%

Question 4

What is the sensitivity and the specificity of a cutoff of CK and AST in Neosporosis in dogs (Jones et al. 2021)?

Answer 4

Increased CK and AST was positively associated with neospora compared to noninfectious cases.

For CK (cutoff 485 U/L):
SENS around 95% [95.25%]

SPEC around 95% [96.44%]

with a negative predictive value of >99%

For AST (cutoff 57 U/L):
SENS around 94%
SPEC around 85%
with a negative predictive value of 99%

Question 5

If a dog with neuromuscular highly suspected neosporosis is seronegative, which would be your alternative tests (Alf et al.2023, JVIM)?

Answer 5

1) PCR on muscle biopsy
2) IHC on muscle biopsy
3) Histopathology - tachyzoites on muscle biopsy
4) chromogenic in situ hybridization assay on muscle biopsy
All positive were only on 5/16 cases ONLY

Question 6

Which are the clinical types of neosporosis in dogs and their ratio (Fisher et al. 2024, JSAP)

Answer 6

Localisation of the lesions:
1) multifocal (46.3%) (mainly cerebellovestibular +/- forebrain 24.4%, +/- cerebellospinal 9.8%)
2) 14.6% classic presentation (most of them cerebellar, and 1 with T3-S3 puppy syndrome)
3) 24.4% focal myelopathy (T3-L3 > Cervc>L4-S3)
4) 9.8% generalised neuromuscular
5) 4.9% forebrain

Question 7

What is the rate of clinical improvement and the relapse rate of neosporosis in dogs (Fisher et al. 2024, JSAP)

Answer 7

Clinical improvement 5.6%

Relapse rate 27.8%

Question 8

What was the seroprevalence of Toxo and Neo in dogs with epilepsy? Is seroprevalence significantly associated between epileptic and nonepileptic dogs (Morganti et al. 2024, JSAP)?

Answer 8

epileptic dogs:
Toxo 26%
Neo 12%

No statistical significance on seroprevalnece betwteen epileptic and non epileptic dogs.