Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging findings with left adrenal pheochromocytoma infiltrating the spinal canal and the liver metastases in a dog

Abstract

Recently, detection of canine primary adrenal mass has increased owing to progress in diagnostic imaging. Adrenocortical adenoma, adrenocortical carcinoma, and pheochromocytoma are representative primary adrenal masses; the latter two may invade intravascularly and metastasize to other organs. We encountered a dog exhibiting progressive hindlimb paraplegia. Multimodal imaging including computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed that the cause of the paraplegia was infiltration of a left adrenal pheochromocytoma into the spinal canal. In addition, MRI detected small liver metastatic lesions that were not detected by CT.