A puzzle: possible atherosclerosis with high cholesterol in a cat
This is the challenging case of a 5 y.o. domestic short-haired cat suffering daily seizures. To cut a long story short his cholesterol levels are 10 times the top end of normal for no apparent reason -blood results are otherwise unremarkable.
From an ultrasonographic point of view this is his abdominal aorta (as seen from the right side in frontal plane) with and without colour Doppler:
Those look to me like atherosclerotic plaques -the narrowing of the lumen is quite dramatic in places.
And now his carotids (transverse view from ventral):
Now, I can see where his carotid arteries should be -that’s normally straighforward. But this is with power Doppler -and there is no hint of flow through those vessels. His jugular flow is fine:
So, cerebral hypoxia due to atherosclerosis seems a possible cause for his seizures.
Investigations are ongoing and there’s a lot more to say than I have included here but if anyone has any bright ideas as to causes of apparently idiopathic hypercholesterolaemia in a cat we’d love to hear from you!
