Újszülött csikók idegrendszeri vizsgálatának sajátosságai és leggyakoribb idegrendszeri betegségei

Abstract

SUMMARY Background: Description of the neurological characteristics and the diseases of newborn foals in Hungarian language is lacking. Objectives: To review the neurological exam, diagnostics and special findings in healthy and diseased foals. Materials and Methods: 26 publications were reviewed. Results and Discussion: Neurological exam of foals shares many similarities to adults, however there are certain phenotypic differences that present early in life. Healthy foals tend to be hyperreflexive to any noxious stimuli of the face and trunk. They would sink to the ground and exhibit somnolence in response to firm pressure applied around their chest and buttocks. This phenomenon has been named the squeeze induced somnolence. Foals’ mentation can be greatly influenced by a non-neurologic disease and they quickly become depressed in response to dehydration, hypovolaemia, hypoglycaemia or sepsis. Foals have a higher tendency for seizures as well, which most often disappears without residual deficits. From the cranial nerves, foals lack menace and their globe is ventromedially positioned. Spinal and extensor reflexes are very prominent and the gait is dysmetric in the first few hours. Analysis of CSF may be unreward-ing and often lacks usefulness, but should be performed in the suspicion of meningitis. Electrodiagnostic modalities including electroencephalography and brainstem auditory evoked responses require expertise and specialized equipment; the former can be used to diagnose seizure activity and epilepsy, while the latter may be used in the diagnosis of deafness of certain coat-colored foals. While many diagnostic imaging modalities are available nowadays, for neuro-logic diagnosis: they either non-specific enough (ultrasound and x-ray) or require general anesthesia (computer tomography and magnetic resonance imaging). Serum neurosteroids show a great promise in further understading some of the diseases of the early perinatal life. The most common diseases include neonatal maladjustment syndrome, meningitis, levander foal syndrome, cerebellar abiotrophy, atlanto-axial malformation and juvenile epilepsy of Arabian foals.