BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Neurology and Neurosurgery
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1572286
Blood Brain Barrier Permeability Changes in dogs with suspected Canine Cognitive Dysfunction using Magnetic Resonance Imaging Subtraction Enhancement Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, United States
- 2Koret School of Veterinary Medicine, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
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Background -The role of Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB) breakdown/ dysfunction (BBBD) has been recognized in processes related to cognitive decline both in degenerative diseases as well as normal elderly aging. There is a need for antemortem evaluation tools to assess the permeability of BBB in cases of Canine Cognitive Dysfunction (CCD) to allow better grading of the dysfunction and monitoring of progression.Hypothesis/Objectives -To examine changes in the BBB permeability using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in dogs with CCD compared to a control group. We hypothesized that BBB permeability alterations will be detected and quantified using subtraction enhancement analysis (SEA).Animals -MRI scans of dogs with signs of CCD were received from Koret veterinary teaching hospital (n=10, 0.35 T MRI) and WSU (n=3, 1.5 T MRI) and compared to non-CCD dogs (n=9 from Koret, n=6 from WSU).Methods -Retrospective case control study. MRI scans were analyzed using SEA to determine a threshold value of "positive-permeable" voxels and use it to highlight suspected areas and calculate a score for BBB dysfunction (BBBD).Results -Mean BBBD scores did not differ significantly between the study and control groups.BBBD was present in a few cases of CCD but not in all of them.Importance -SEA was not sensitive to recognize BBBD in CCD compared to other canine diseases such as neoplasia and seizures in this cohort of dogs. Other methods to increase sensitivity of BBBD may be needed for CCD, or it may exist only in a subpopulation of patients.
Keywords: Bloo-brain barrier, subtraction enhancement, Canine Cognitive Dysfunction, Dogs, MRI
Received: 06 Feb 2025; Accepted: 24 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Merbl, Mondrus, Hanael and Shamir. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yael Merbl, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, United States
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