Congenital and aquired myopathies in dogs: case series

Diseases affecting muscles and the neuromuscular junction are commonly overlooked when evaluating a dog with lameness. Orthopedic disorders occur more frequently than neuromuscular disorders; however, when a diagnosis cannot be reached following a careful orthopedic evaluation, neuromuscular pathologic conditions should be considered. Affected individuals with muscle or neuromuscular junction disease may present with lameness, limb contractures or more generalized musculoskeletal abnormalities, such as a crouched stance and stiff, short-stridden gait. In veterinary clinical practice, the simplest and most routine diagnostic test for muscle disease is blood chemistry. When available, muscle biopsy remains the most useful diagnostic tool in the diagnosis of muscle disease, both in human and in veterinary medicine. As in human medicine, in animals EMG studies represent the state of the art in neuromuscular diagnostic techniques. This is a retrospective study in which we evaluate all the cases of myopathies referred to the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Productions of the University of Napoli Federico II from 2004 to 2014.