Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Heat treatment helps detect heartworm antigen in dog blood samples
By Little, Susan E et al.·Published in Veterinary parasitology·2014·Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Pre-treatment with heat facilitates detection of antigen of Dirofilaria immitis in canine samples.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A dog with heartworm infection (Dirofilaria immitis) had blood tests that initially failed to detect the infection due to the presence of immune complexes. Researchers found that heating the blood sample helped break these complexes apart, allowing the heartworm antigen to be detected. This suggests that some dogs may have factors in their blood that make it harder to identify heartworm infections. By using heat treatment before testing, veterinarians could improve the chances of accurately diagnosing heartworm in affected dogs.
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Abstract
Diagnosis of Dirofilaria immitis infection in dogs is largely dependent on detection of antigen in canine serum, plasma, or whole blood, but antigen may be bound in immune complexes and thus not detected. To develop a model for antigen blocking, we mixed serum from a microfilaremic, antigen-positive dog with that of a hypergammaglobulinemic dog not currently infected with D. immitis and converted the positive sample to antigen-negative; detection of antigen was restored when the mixed sample was heat-treated, presumably due to disruption of antigen/antibody complexes. A blood sample was also evaluated from a dog that was microfilaremic and for which microfilariae were identified as D. immitis by morphologic examination. Antigen of D. immitis was not detected in this sample prior to heating but the sample was strongly positive after heat treatment of whole blood. Taken together, our results indicate that blood samples from some dogs may contain factors that inhibit detection of antigen of D. immitis, and that heat treatment of these samples prior to testing could improve the sensitivity of these assays in some patients.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24576603/