Epidemiological distribution of MRI-based presumptive imaging diagnoses in a large general population of cats with suspected epileptic seizures.

Approximately 61% of MRI scans in cats with suspected seizures show no structural brain lesions.

This retrospective MRI-based study analyzed 432 cats with suspected epileptic seizures to characterize the epidemiological distribution of imaging findings. Sixty-one percent of cases showed no structural brain lesions, with 47% meeting idiopathic epilepsy (IE) criteria and 53% classified as epilepsy of unknown aetiology (EuA). Among the 39% of cases with structural lesions (SL), inflammatory diseases were most common (25%), followed by extra-axial neoplasia (19%), metabolic/toxic aetiologies (12%), and congenital disorders (10%). Other diagnoses included intra-axial neoplasia (7%), trauma (5%), suspected hippocampal necrosis (5%), vascular events (4%), thiamine deficiency (2%), and degenerative diseases (2%). The study highlights that nearly two-thirds of MRIs in cats with suspected seizures reveal no structural abnormalities. However, the authors acknowledge significant limitations including lack of histopathological confirmation and incomplete clinical data, which may affect diagnostic accuracy and prevalence estimates. These findings contribute valuable epidemiological data regarding structural versus non-structural causes of seizures in feline populations.

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