Visceral leishmaniasis with cardiac involvement in a dog : a case report
López-Peña, Mónica (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. Departamento de Ciencias Clínicas Veterinarias)
Alemañ, Núria (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. Departamento de Anatomía, Produción Animal e Ciencias Clínicas Veterinarias)
Muñoz, Fernando (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. Departamento de Ciencias Clínicas Veterinarias)
Fondevila, Dolors (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Medicina i Cirurgia Animals)
Suárez, María Luisa (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. Departamento de Ciencias Clínicas Veterinarias)
Goicoa, Ana (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. Departamento de Ciencias Clínicas Veterinarias)
Nieto, José María (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. Departamento de Ciencias Clínicas Veterinarias)

Date:	2009
Abstract:	A dog presented with cutaneous nodules, enlarged lymph nodes and oedema in limbs, face and abdomen. The diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis was established by identification of Leishmania amastigotes within macrophages from skin and popliteal lymph node biopsies. At necropsy, lesions were found in different organs, but it was particularly striking to observe large areas of pallor in the myocardium. Histological examination revealed an intense chronic inflammatory reaction in many organs, and numerous macrophages were found to contain amastigote forms of Leishmania. The inflammatory reaction was especially severe in the heart, where large areas of the myocardium appeared infiltrated with huge numbers of mononuclear immune cells, causing cardiac muscle atrophy and degeneration. Despite the severe inflammation, the number of parasitized macrophages was low in the myocardium, as revealed by immunohistochemical staining of Leishmania amastigotes. Because cardiac involvement is not usually described in this condition, this dog represents a very rare case of canine visceral leishmaniasis with affection of the myocardium.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Leishmania ; Dogs
Published in:	Acta veterinaria scandinavica, Vol. 30 Núm. 51 (2009) , p. 20, ISSN 0044-605X

DOI: 10.1186/1751-0147-51-20
PMID: 19405946

3 p, 1.0 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Health sciences and biosciences > Unitat de Patologia Murina i Comparada
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles