Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Great Dane with very high alkaline phosphatase and acute leukemia
By Froment, Rémi & Bédard, Christian·Published in Veterinary clinical pathology·2016·Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Canada·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Marked hyperphosphatasemia associated with an acute leukemia in a Great Dane.
Plain-English summary
A 5-year-old male neutered Great Dane was brought to the vet with a very high white blood cell count and unusual cells in his blood. He also had extremely elevated alkaline phosphatase levels, which are enzymes that can indicate liver or bone issues. Despite various tests, the exact type of leukemia was unclear, but it was determined that the leukemia cells were contributing to the high enzyme levels. Unfortunately, the outcome of the treatment is not specified, but this case highlights a rare situation where leukemia caused significant changes in blood enzyme levels.
People also search for: Great Dane leukemia symptoms · high alkaline phosphatase in dogs · dog blood test results explained
Abstract
This is the report of a 5-year-old male neutered Great Dane with an extreme leukocytosis (544.9 × 10(9) cells/L; RI 5.2-13.9 × 10(9) cells/L) characterized by highly atypical round cells. Cellular morphologic features such as cytoplasmic membrane blebs, a high nuclear-to-cytoplasmic ratio, and nuclear indentations and irregularities and large nucleoli, as well as immunocytochemistry for CD3 and CD79, myeloperoxidase cytochemistry, and clonality testing were not conclusive for myeloid or lymphoid origin. Marked alkaline hyperphosphatasemia was present at the first visit (2783.0 U/L; RI 6-80.0 U/L), followed by a 5-fold increase (14,000 U/L) a week later, identified as being mostly contributed by the bone-ALP isoform (11,062 U/L; RI 0-30 U/L). In addition, the atypical leukocytes were strongly positive for cytoplasmic ALP activity. In vitro lysis of a heparin blood sample resulted in a 1.7-fold increase of ALP activity, supporting the origin of the hyperphosphatasemia at least in part from the leukemic cell population. To the authors' knowledge, this is a unique case of alkaline hyperphosphatasemia, due at least to a leukemic cell population producing a bone-ALP isoform, regardless of the exact nature of the leukemia.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27538028/