Distribution and relationships between clinical and biopathological parameters in canine leishmaniasis

Abstract

Although the lesions, clinical signs and biochemical alterations observed in the course of canine leishmaniasis have been amply described a thorough definition and characterisation of the affected populations is important in order to detect relationships between parameters which may be involved in the development of this disease and to correctly assess further studies. This study included 61 dogs diagnosed with naturally acquired canine leishmaniasis by means of indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA). At diagnosis, dogs were classified according to the following qualitative and quantitative variables: gender, breed, age, clinical picture, antibody titre, serum protein electrophoretogram, haemogram (CBC), urea, creatinine and ALT. Our population included dogs of 24 breeds, both sexes and different ages indicating no sex, age or breed predilection. In relation to the clinical picture, eight dogs were asymptomatic, 16 displayed mainly cutaneous signs, 18 presented primarily visceral signs and 19 displayed both cutaneous and visceral signs. Our results indicate that the clinical picture is significantly related to electrophoretogram and to RBC, PCV and haemoglobin. Dogs with mainly cutaneous signs showed the highest eosinophil mean values and those with mainly visceral signs showed the highest alpha-globulin mean values. This study confirms that the antibody titre is highly correlated with electrophoretogram and with RBC, PCV and haemoglobin. Lymphocytes were not associated or correlated with any other variable considered. PMNC, monocytes and eosinophils, as well as WBC, showed a significant correlation with beta-globulins, which is difficult to interpret.

Efficacy of Amphotericin-B, Clinicopathologic Variables and Oxidative Stress Markers in three Staffordshire Bull Terrier Dogs with Visceral Leishmaniasis

“…2), and erythematous lesions around the mouth. Many clinical signs appeared in this study coincide with the previous reports (Abranches et al, 1991;Amusategui et al, 2003;Petersen, 2009). …”

“…As for leukocyte levels, in contrast to leukopenia report in symptomatic dogs (Amusategui et al, 2003;Reis et al, 2006), leukocytosis in case 3 is consistent with the report of Freitas et al (2012).…”

Relationship between clinical and pathological signs and severity of canine leishmaniasis

“…Although the literature contains many reports of clinical and laboratory findings on CVL, the approach employed often favors the individual analysis of parameters (SLAPPENDEL, 1988; (AMUSATEGUI et al, 2003;REIS et al, 2006b;COSTA-VAL et al, 2007). In this study, the clinical classification was chosen because of its widespread adoption in the literature of both the Old and New World, whether in natural or experimental infection (PINELLI et al, 1994(PINELLI et al, , 1995TRAVI et al, 2001;FERNÁNDEZ-PÉREZ et al, 2003;COSTA-VAL, 2004;REIS et al, 2006a, b).…”

“…On the other hand, the existence of a correlation between anemia and the severity of the disease is still controversial. Although a correlation between anemia and clinical signs has been reported previously (AMUSATEGUI et al, 2003;REIS et al, 2006b), this was not confirmed in the study of Costa-Val et al (2007). This knowledge is important to understand the pathogenesis of CVL, as well as to evaluate the potential use of these clinical and pathological parameters to aid diagnostics and therapeutic monitoring.…”

“…The marked polyclonal humoral response that occurs after infection gives rise to visible changes in the electrophoretic plasma profile. In addition, high parasite loads in the components of mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS), e.g., in bone marrow and liver, triggering the occurrence of clinical pathology related to hepatic and hematopoietic functions (KEENAN et al, 1984b;AMUSATEGUI et al, 2003). Considering that parasite density in tissues increase according to the severity of clinical manifestations (GIUNCHETTI et al, 2006;REIS et al, 2006b), symptomatic dogs present significantly decreased levels of albumin and increased levels of globulin fraction, leading to an inversion of A/G ratio when compared to asymptomatic dogs, suggesting a relationship between the presence of exacerbated clinical forms of CVL, serum protein levels and humoral immune response alterations (GIUNCHETTI et al, 2006(GIUNCHETTI et al, , 2008REIS et al, 2006b).…”