Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog with rare blood cancer causing anemia and blood clots
By Ledieu, David et al.·Published in Veterinary clinical pathology·2005·Laboratoire d'Hé, France·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Acute megakaryoblastic leukemia with erythrophagocytosis and thrombosis in a dog.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 7-year-old male Dachshund was brought to the vet because he had been lethargic and not eating for several weeks. The vet found that he had pale gums, an enlarged liver and spleen, and swollen lymph nodes. Blood tests showed he had severe anemia and low platelet counts, and further tests revealed a type of leukemia with abnormal blood cells. Unfortunately, despite the diagnosis, the dog was euthanized due to the severity of his condition.
People also search for: dog lethargy and not eating · Dachshund leukemia symptoms · dog anemia treatment
Abstract
A 7-year-old, intact male Dachshund was presented to the Lyon veterinary school for lethargy and anorexia of several weeks duration. The main clinical signs were pale and icteric mucous membranes, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, and lymphadenopathy. Results of a CBC and plasma biochemistry tests revealed severe nonregenerative anemia, thrombocytopenia, and increased alanine aminotransferase and alkaline phosphatase activities. Blood smear evaluation and cytologic examination of lymph node and bone marrow aspirate specimens revealed a large population of poorly differentiated blast cells with morphologic features suggesting megakaryocytic lineage. A low number of well-differentiated but dysplastic megakaryocytes also were observed in lymph node and bone marrow smears. A few blast cells were erythrophagocytic. Blast cells were positive for glycoprotein IIIa, factor VIII-related antigen, and factor XIII using immunocytochemistry. The dog was euthanized and necropsied. Histologic findings consisted of diffuse, massive infiltration of lymph nodes, liver, and spleen by megakaryoblasts and atypical megakaryocytes, with widespread thrombosis. This case confirms the usefulness of immunochemistry, including for factor XIII, in the diagnosis of megakaryoblastic leukemia, and demonstrates the unique features of tumor cell erythrophagocytosis and marked fibrinous thrombosis, which have not been reported previously in dogs.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15732019/