Meningoencefalomielite granulomatosa em cães: revisão de literatura

Abstract

Granulomatous meningoencephalomyelitis is an acute and progressive inflammatory disease that affects the central nervous system of dogs of any breed or age, but mostly small breeds and young to middle-aged dogs. The etiology is unknown but it may be related to immune-mediated, infectious, or neoplastic cause. The clinical signs reflect the location of the lesions within the central nervous system and can be classified as diffuse, focal or ocular forms. The presumptive antemortem diagnosis is based on a combination of signalment, anamnesis, and exclusion of infectious disease, cerebrospinal fluid analysis and imaging tests. Definitive diagnosis can only be made histologically on post-mortem examination, which identifies perivascular granuloma in the parenchyma of the white matter, and leptomeningeal infiltrates, of mononuclear cells, especially, lymphocytes and histiocytes, that can also reach the gray matter. The treatment is based on immunosuppressive therapy with long term corticosteroids, but clinical signs tend to return to discontinuation. Other immunosuppressive drugs can be used in combination, such as cyclosporine, cytarabine and procarbazine, trying to reduce the dose of corticosteroid and increase the life expectancy of the patient. The prognosis is poor, especially in the diffuse form. The objective of this study is to make a review about granulomatous meningoencephalomyelitis in dogs.