Departamento de Anatomía, Produción Animal e Ciencias Clínicas Veterinarias, Facultade de Veterinaria, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Hospital Veterinario Universitario Rof Codina, Estrada da Granxa, 51, 27002 Lugo, Spain
Danica Pollard
Independent Researcher, The Rodhams, Rodham Road, Wisbech PE14 9NU, UK
Raquel Salgüero
Hospital Veterinario Veterios, C. de Arrastaria, 23, San Blas-Canillejas, 28022 Madrid, Spain
Ella Fitzgerald
Department of Clinical Sciences and Services, The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, Hertfordshire AL9 7TA, UK
Bacterial liver parenchymal infections in dogs are rarely documented, and their imaging characteristics are scarce in the veterinary literature, especially in Computed Tomography (CT). This retrospective multicentric study aimed to describe the CT characteristics of parenchymal bacterial liver infection and abscessation in dogs and compare them with the human literature. Twenty dogs met the inclusion criteria. All dogs, except one, showed discrete hepatic lesions consistent with pyogenic liver abscess (19/20). A single case showed diffuse liver changes, which was diagnosed with granulomatous bacterial hepatitis (1/20). Multifocal lesions were associated with the presence of abdominal pain (p = 0.023). CT characteristics of pyogenic liver abscesses in our study resemble those described in the human literature, with multifocal (14/19) or single (5/19), round or ovoid (19/19), hypoattenuating hepatic lesions, which are better visualised in post-contrast images. Pyogenic liver abscesses can also show features such as the “cluster sign” (8/19), transient arterial segmental enhancement (6/10), rim enhancement (6/19), and intralesional gas (4/19). Additional CT findings, such as local lymphadenomegaly (18/20), peritoneal fat stranding (14/20), and peritoneal fluid (13/20), are also commonly observed.
