Microsplenia with splenic vein thrombosis in a dog with systemic lupus erythematosus
There are many aspects to this poor dog’s case. For about a year she suffered multi-limb lameness, then developed skin lesions with interface dermatitis, then severe anaemia, then liver disease. She was also ANA positive and fulfills many criteria for SLE.
Ultrasonographically, the most striking feature as that it took me 10 minutes to find her spleen which was about 1cm thick and 4cm in cranio-caudal width. Thromboses were present in intra- and extra-splenic veins.
I can report that you don’t get much back if you google ‘microsplenia dog’ -apart from the acute splenic contraction accompanying acute blood loss.
Since this dog’s splenic vein thrombosis may well be chronic it could be that atrophy was due to splenic hypoperfusion. However, in human medicine an association with autoimmune disease is also reported:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17142180
