Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How lymph node and bone marrow tests find leishmaniasis in dogs
By Saridomichelakis, Manolis N et al.·Published in The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene·2005·Department of Clinical Sciences·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Evaluation of lymph node and bone marrow cytology in the diagnosis of canine leishmaniasis (Leishmania infantum) in symptomatic and asymptomatic dogs.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study looked at how well lymph node and bone marrow tests can diagnose leishmaniasis (a disease caused by Leishmania parasites) in dogs. They found that these tests were very accurate in dogs showing symptoms of the disease, but not as reliable in dogs that didn't show any signs. In symptomatic dogs, the tests detected the parasites effectively, while in asymptomatic dogs, the detection rate was much lower. This means that if your dog is showing symptoms of leishmaniasis, these tests can be a good way to confirm the diagnosis.
People also search for: dog leishmaniasis symptoms · lymph node test for dogs · bone marrow test for dog disease
Abstract
The sensitivity and specificity of lymph node and bone marrow smear microscopy for the diagnosis of Leishmania infantum-infected dogs was evaluated in 79 dogs with leishmaniasis (Group A), 52 asymptomatically infected dogs (Group B), and 44 healthy noninfected dogs (Group C). Light microscopy examination included 10 to 1,000 oil immersion fields, and the density of Leishmania amastigotes was scored by a 0 to +6 scale. Using polymerase chain reaction as the gold standard, the specificity of lymph node and bone marrow cytology was 100%, whereas sensitivity ranged from 7.8% to 92.6%, being significantly higher in Group A compared with Group B. The amastigote scores were also significantly higher in Group A compared with Group B. These results indicate that lymph node and bone marrow cytology is a highly sensitive and specific method for the diagnosis of canine patent leishmaniasis, whereas its sensitivity is relatively low in asymptomatic infections.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16014839/