Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How effective is a conjunctival swab test for diagnosing
By Di Muccio, Trentina et al.·Published in Journal of clinical microbiology·2012·MIPI Department, Italy·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Diagnostic value of conjunctival swab sampling associated with nested PCR for different categories of dogs naturally exposed to Leishmania infantum infection.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs in central Italy were tested for leishmaniasis, a disease caused by a parasite, using a simple conjunctival swab (a sample taken from the eye area). This method was found to be very effective, especially in dogs that showed no symptoms as well as those that were sick, with a high success rate in detecting the infection. The study showed that this noninvasive test could help diagnose the disease early and monitor treatment effectiveness in dogs receiving therapy. Overall, the conjunctival swab test proved to be a promising option for diagnosing leishmaniasis in dogs.
People also search for: dog leishmaniasis symptoms · conjunctival swab test for dogs · treatment for leishmaniasis in dogs
Abstract
The objective of the present study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of a noninvasive assay, conjunctival swab (CS) nested-PCR (n-PCR), for diagnosing canine leishmaniasis (CanL) in different stages of infection in comparison to the performance of the indirect immunofluorescence antibody test (IFAT), lymph node microscopy, and buffy coat n-PCR. To this end, we performed a cross-sectional survey among 253 nonselected dogs in areas of endemicity in central Italy. We also performed a longitudinal study of CS n-PCR among 20 sick dogs undergoing antileishmanial treatment. In the first study, among the 72 animals that were positive by at least one test (28.45%), CS n-PCR showed the best relative performance (76.38%), with a high concordance in comparison to standard IFAT serology (κ = 0.75). The highest positivity rates using CS n-PCR were found in asymptomatic infected dogs (84.2%) and sick dogs (77.8%); however, the sensitivity of the assay was not associated with the presence of clinical signs. In the follow-up study on treated sick dogs, CS n-PCR was the most sensitive assay, with promising prognostic value for relapses. The univariate analysis of risk factors for CanL based on CS n-PCR findings showed a significant correlation with age (P = 0.012), breed size (P = 0.026), habitat (P = 4.9 × 10(-4)), and previous therapy (P = 0.014). Overall, the results indicated that CS n-PCR was the most sensitive assay of the less invasive diagnostic methods and could represent a good option for the early and simple diagnosis of CanL infection in asymptomatic animals and for monitoring relapses in drug-treated dogs.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22649018/