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Idiopathic Complex Polysaccharide Storage Disease in an Abyssinian Cat

Abstract

A glycogen storage disease affecting primarily the skeletal muscle and, to a lesser degree, the cardiac muscle, spinal cord, and brain was diagnosed in a 10-year-old neutered Abyssinian cat with a 4-year history of paresis progressing to acute paralysis. Microscopically, these tissues contained inclusions that were pale basophilic in hematoxylin and eosin–stained slides, diastase resistant, periodic acid–Schiff positive, and blue-to-almost black with iodine stain. By transmission electron microscopy, the inclusions consisted of cytosolic, usually sharply demarcated, nonmembrane-bound deposits of finely granular and filamentous material. On the basis of the structural and histochemical staining characteristics, the inclusions were believed to be aggregates of abnormally stored, unbranched glycogen. A defect in glucose metabolism is suspected to be the underlying pathologic process, but an exact cause remains elusive.

Key words: Cardiomyopathy; cats; encephalomyelopathy; glycogen storage disease; histochemistry; myopathy; ultrastructure.

Request reprints from Dr. I. M. Langohr, Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, School of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2065 (USA). E-mail: ilangohr{at}purdue.edu