ChesterGates Veterinary Specialists resident in neurology, Luis Villalonga Rodriguez, has won the European College of Veterinary Neurology’s "Boehringer Ingelheim – Best Poster Presentation by a Young Neurologist in Training".
The prize was awarded for his clinical presentation and MRI findings on cerebellar disease in dogs. His poster was presented at the recent ECVN-ESVN Symposium in Porto, Portugal.
Luis’ research aims to evaluate the clinical presentation and MRI findings in dogs with cerebellar disease, correlating clinical signs with lesion location. His poster presents 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.
Evaluation of this initial evidence found that:
• Ataxia or inco-ordination was the most common neurological sign in cerebellar disease. This is in line with human literature, where symptoms indicating abnormal gait or inco-ordination 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 inco-ordination or rigidity, or seizure-like episodes) were also reported.
• Vascular disease was the most prevalent in patients, usually affecting the rostral cerebellar lobe.
Luis comments: “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.”
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