A retrospective multi‐center study of treatment, outcome, and prognostic factors in 34 dogs with disseminated aspergillosis in Australia

Abstract

Background Disseminated aspergillosis (DA) in dogs has a guarded prognosis and there is a lack of a gold standard treatment protocol. Objective To retrospectively assess survival times and factors influencing survival times. Animals Dogs diagnosed with DA from January 2007 to June 2017. Methods Disseminated aspergillosis case data were retrieved from 13 Australian veterinary referral centers, with a diagnosis confirmed with culture or PCR. Factors influencing survival time after diagnosis were quantified using a Cox proportional hazards regression model. Results Thirty‐four dogs met the study inclusion criteria. Twenty‐two dogs were treated with antifungal treatment and 12 dogs received no antifungal treatment. Accounting for censoring of dogs that were either still alive on the date of data collection or were loss to follow‐up, dogs treated with itraconazole alone (n = 8) had a median survival time (MST) of 63 (95% CI: 20−272) days compared to 830 (95% CI: 267‐1259) days for the n = 14 dogs that received multimodal antifungal therapy (χ2 test statistic 8.6; df = 1; P < .01). The daily hazard of death (DHOD) for dogs with abnormally high serum creatinine concentration at the time of diagnosis was 7.4 (95% CI: 1.9‐29) times that of dogs with serum creatinine within the reference interval. Conclusion and Clinical Importance Serum creatinine concentration at the time of diagnosis is a useful prognostic indicator for survival after a diagnosis of DA. The MST for dogs treated with multimodal antifungal therapy is longer than itraconazole alone and warrant further investigation (P < .01).