Neurology student wins top prize for cerebellar disease research

A vet resident in neurology has won a top award for research findings into cerebellar disease in dogs.

Luis Villalonga Rodriguez, who is based at ChesterGates Veterinary Specialists, Cheshire, received the award for his clinical presentation and MRI findings, and after his poster was presented at the joint European College of Veterinary Neurology/European Society of Veterinary Neurology (ECVN-ESVN) Symposium in Porto.

Mr Rodriguez’ research aims to evaluate the clinical presentation and MRI findings in dogs with cerebellar disease, correlating clinical signs with lesion location.

His poster presented the preliminary results of this research, where clinical data of 102 dogs with cerebellar neurolocalisation and cerebellar lesions that presented to four referral hospitals were reviewed.

Findings

Evaluation of this initial evidence found that:

• Ataxia or incoordination was the most common neurological sign in cerebellar disease. This is in line with human literature, where symptoms indicating abnormal gait or incoordination are also frequent in cerebellar disease.
• Less commonly recognised cerebellar signs, such as head turn or pleurothotonus (deviation of the head or body towards one side), conscious proprioception deficits, paresis, abnormal mentation and behaviour or paroxysmal events (episodic incoordination or rigidity, or seizure-like episodes) were also reported.
• Vascular disease was the most prevalent in patients, usually affecting the rostral cerebellar lobe.

The research meant he won the ECVN’s Boehringer Ingelheim – Best Poster Presentation by a Young Neurologist in Training award.

Research ongoing

Mr Rodriguez said: “I am thrilled to win this award. The poster presented at the ECVN-ESVN Symposium is a descriptive study of cerebellar lesions in dogs and represents the preliminary findings of our ongoing research.

“Our initial observations suggest that clinical signs, typically not associated with cerebellar disease, may in fact manifest in patients with cerebellar lesions. We hope to provide further insights into this subject over the coming months, once the full study is completed and published.”