Prevalence and pattern of thoracolumbar caudal articular process anomalies and intervertebral disk herniations in pugs

Abstract

Thoracolumbar intervertebral disk herniation (TL-IVDH) with caudal articular processanomalies has been reported in Pugs. It currently remains unclear whether congenital caudalarticular process aplasia/hypoplasia predisposes to the development of TL-IVDH. However, thereare difficulties in proving the causal relationship between caudal articular process anomalies andTL-IVDH. The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of TL-IVDH at the vertebral spacecontaining anomalous and normal caudal articular processes in Pugs. Fifty-seven pugs wereeligible to be included in this study. Caudal articular process aplasia/hypoplasia affected 52/57(91.2%) dogs. The caudal articular process anomalies were most frequently located between T10and T13. Colocalization of caudal articular process aplasia/hypoplasia and TL-IVDH was detectedin 11 dogs (19.3%). The prevalence of TL-IVDH at vertebral spaces containing abnormal caudalarticular processes was 12.3%, whereas the prevalence of TL-IVDH at vertebral spaces containingnormal articular processes was 2.4%. With the increase in the number of vertebrae with caudalarticular process anomalies, the prevalence of TL-IVDH also increased. The results of this studysuggested the prevalence of caudal articular process anomalies was high in Pugs. The caudalarticular process anomalies could be associated with TL-IVDH. A large cohort is needed to provethe causal relationship between caudal articular process anomalies and TL-IVDH.