PMID- 16806713
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20061109
LR  - 20061115
IS  - 0304-4017 (Print)
IS  - 0304-4017 (Linking)
VI  - 141
IP  - 1-2
DP  - 2006 Oct 10
TI  - Capillary and venous Babesia canis rossi parasitaemias and their association with 
      outcome of infection and circulatory compromise.
PG  - 18-29
AB  - This observational study of 100 dogs naturally infected with Babesia canis rossi 
      determined whether severity of parasitaemia was associated with outcome of 
      infection and documented the relative distribution of parasitised red blood cells 
      (pRBC) in capillary and venous circulation. The association between increased 
      parasitaemias and outcome with a clinically compromised circulation was also 
      investigated. Outcome was defined as either hospitalisation with death, or 
      hospitalisation with eventual recovery or treatment as an outpatient. Dogs were 
      enrolled if large babesias were found on stained thin capillary blood smears made 
      from an ear prick. Thin venous smears were prepared from jugular or cephalic 
      blood. Parasitaemias were manually counted and expressed as the percent pRBC. Ten 
      dogs died, 50 recovered after hospitalisation and 40 were treated as outpatients. 
      Venous sampling site did not affect venous parasitaemia (P=0.6). Both capillary 
      and venous parasitaemias of dogs that died were significantly higher than those 
      of dogs that recovered after hospitalisation (P=0.002) and dogs that were treated 
      as outpatients (P<0.0001). When assessing the whole group, capillary parasitaemia 
      (median 0.61%, range <0.05-71.6%, interquartile range (IQR) 0.22-3.75%) was 
      significantly higher than venous parasitaemia (median 0.14%, range 0-30.6%, IQR 
      0.046-0.52%) with P<0.0001. The 21 dogs with a clinically compromised circulation 
      were more likely to die (P<0.0001) and had significantly higher capillary (median 
      5.98%, range 0.09-71.6%, IQR 2.44-19.41%) and venous (median 2.81%, range 
      <0.05-30.6%, IQR 0.17-9.03%) parasitaemias than the 79 dogs with a clinically 
      normal circulation (capillary median parasitaemia 0.38%, range <0.05-12.87%, IQR 
      0.16-1.42%; venous median parasitaemia 0.096%, range 0-6.13%, IQR <0.05-0.33%; 
      P<0.0001). This study shows that high parasitaemia is significantly associated 
      with death in B c rossi infected dogs. The previous clinical suspicion that 
      capillary parasitaemias are usually higher than venous parasitaemias is 
      confirmed. Thus capillary samples are the most appropriate diagnostic samples. 
      Prior observations that a clinically compromised circulation is associated with 
      death are confirmed. Despite the highly significant association between 
      compromised circulation and higher parasitaemia, it is thought unlikely that 
      parasite burden is the sole trigger for circulatory collapse.
FAU - Bohm, Marlies
AU  - Bohm M
AD  - Department of Companion Animal Clinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Science, 
      University of Pretoria, Onderstepoort, Pretoria, South Africa. 
      marlies.bohm@up.ac.za
FAU - Leisewitz, Andrew L
AU  - Leisewitz AL
FAU - Thompson, Peter N
AU  - Thompson PN
FAU - Schoeman, Johannes P
AU  - Schoeman JP
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20060627
PL  - Netherlands
TA  - Vet Parasitol
JT  - Veterinary parasitology
JID - 7602745
RN  - 0 (Antiprotozoal Agents)
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Antiprotozoal Agents/*therapeutic use
MH  - Babesia/*pathogenicity
MH  - Babesiosis/blood/drug therapy/mortality/*veterinary
MH  - Confidence Intervals
MH  - Dog Diseases/*blood/drug therapy/mortality
MH  - Dogs
MH  - Erythrocytes/*parasitology
MH  - Odds Ratio
MH  - Parasitemia/mortality/veterinary
MH  - Severity of Illness Index
MH  - Treatment Outcome
EDAT- 2006/06/30 09:00
MHDA- 2006/11/11 09:00
CRDT- 2006/06/30 09:00
PHST- 2005/12/27 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2006/04/15 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2006/05/04 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2006/06/30 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2006/11/11 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2006/06/30 09:00 [entrez]
AID - S0304-4017(06)00284-6 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.vetpar.2006.05.002 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Vet Parasitol. 2006 Oct 10;141(1-2):18-29. doi: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2006.05.002. 
      Epub 2006 Jun 27.