Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Blood and lab changes linked to anaplasmosis infection in dogs
By Ravnik, Urska et al.·Published in Veterinary microbiology·2011·Small Animal Clinic·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Anaplasmosis in dogs: the relation of haematological, biochemical and clinical alterations to antibody titre and PCR confirmed infection.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs exposed to a tick-borne infection called Anaplasmosis showed changes in their blood tests and health, but these changes weren't enough to confirm if they were actually sick. The study looked at 149 dogs that had been exposed to the bacteria and found that many had low platelet counts, which is a common issue with this infection. However, just having a positive test for the bacteria didn't always mean the dogs were experiencing serious health problems. This suggests that vets may need to use more tests to determine how sick a dog really is after exposure to Anaplasmosis.
People also search for: dog Anaplasmosis symptoms · low platelet count in dogs · dog tick-borne disease treatment
Abstract
Laboratory and clinical parameters of 149 dogs, exposed to Anaplasma phagocytophilum (A. phagocytophilum), and 19 control dogs were evaluated and compared retrospectively. The aim of our study was to determine statistically significant differences of selected parameters between groups of patients, divided according to the immunofluorescence (IFA) titres, in attempt to improve current diagnostic and treatment criteria. Exposure to A. phagocytophilum was confirmed by IFA and infection by PCR. Based on the results, the dogs were divided into 8 groups (6 groups of seropositive dogs according to the antibody titre, 1 group of PCR positive dogs, and a control group). Selected parameters were compared between groups. Thrombocytopenia was confirmed to be the most prominent haematological change in IFA and/or PCR positive dogs. There were no statistically significant differences in clinical and haematological observations between groups of different IFA titre but clear overall differences between each IFA and PCR positive groups compared to the control group. Our results showed the necessity of introducing additional diagnostic procedures in clinical practice, since antibody titre and haematological parameters are not sufficient to confirm the clinical relevance of exposure to A. phagocytophilum in a particular patient.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21112165/