myelopathy

View more Health videos

LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!

1. any functional disturbance or pathological change in the spinal cord; often used to denote nonspecific lesions, as opposed to myelitis. Examples are ischemic encephalopathy, that due to intervertebral disk disease, in the wobbler syndrome in horses.
2. pathological change in bone marrow.

• bovine spinal m. — inherited disease of Murray Grey cattle conditioned by a recessive gene; congenital or appears at up to one year old; characterized by paresis progressing to recumbency and necropsy lesions of neuronal degeneration in midbrain, cerebellum and spinal cord.
• degenerative m. of German shepherd dogs — a slowly progressive ataxia and paresis of the hindlegs in older German shepherd dogs. Marked muscle atrophy is common and fecal and urinary incontinence often develops. The etiology is unknown, but an immune-mediated mechanism is suspected as a depression of T lymphocyte responsiveness has been demonstrated in affected dogs.
• demyelinating m. of Miniature poodles — a diffuse demyelination with sparing of spinal gray matter and dorsal and ventral nerve roots. There is a progressive weakness, then paralysis of hindlegs and later forelegs as well, beginning at a few months of age; believed to be inherited.
• fibrocartilaginous embolic m. — extrusion of degenerate intervertebral disk material into meningeal or intramedullary blood vessels, which results in an ischemic myelopathy. It occurs in horses and, most frequently, in large breeds of dogs, and is manifested by acute paresis or paralysis.
• hereditary m. of Afghan hounds — an autosomal recessive inherited degenerative myelopathy of young Afghan hounds, in which there is ataxia, paresis and eventually paralysis, first in the hindlimbs, then in the forelimbs as well. Called also a leukodystrophy.
• spondylotic cervical m. — myelopathy secondary to encroachment of cervical spondylosis upon a congenitally small cervical spinal canal.