Today’s case is an 8-year-old female spayed Golden Retriever, PU/PD, wobbling, lethargy, and vomiting. What is your interpretation?
Teaching and learning about veterinary diagnostic imaging.
Today’s case is an 8-year-old female spayed Golden Retriever, PU/PD, wobbling, lethargy, and vomiting. What is your interpretation?
Lateral and ventrodorsal radiographs of the abdomen are available for review. The liver is mildly rounded at the caudal border and is displacing the gastric axis caudally. The spleen is mildly enalrged. The kidneys are easily visualized on all projections and are increased in opacity, but normal in size and shape. The peritoneal and retroperitoneal detail is normal. The small intestine is normal in size and contains fluid. The colon and cecum contain gas and fecal material. There is mild spondylosis deformans in the lumbar spine. There are metallic spay sutures in the ventral abdominal wall from previous surgery. Sandbags are acting as positional aids on the v/d projection.
Increased renal opacity may be due to mineral deposition from ethylene glycol toxicity or less likely degenerative change.
Acute kidney injury secondary to ethylene glycol toxicosis.
Isn’t it a little bit of stretch to make such differentials only judging by increased opacity of the kidneys? Or were there any other lab tests for the diagnosis?
Radiology is the practice of generating differential diagnoses from radiographic findings, and interpreting them in a clinical context. The laboratory results may or may not be available at the time of imaging, but are used to refine the differentials. In this case one would expect acute renal failure on lab work. Increased opacity of the kidneys only has a limited number of differential diagnoses of which ethylene glycol toxicity is the main source.