Abstract
Morphological investigations were conducted on four bodies of dogs who died due to severe clinical symptoms following a massive invasion of cardiac and pulmonary Dirofilaria. The subjects were monitored clinically and diagnosed serologically positive for the Heartworm disease. The necropsy examination of the cardiovascular system (right ventricle and pulmonary artery) revealed the presence of 25 adult parasites in one dog with length ranging between 8 and 33cm. Macroscopically, lesions consistently observed were represented by the right ventricular dilatation and the diffuse wall thickening of the pulmonary artery. Parasitic invasion secondary lesions were present in the lungs, liver and kidneys (cardiac and vascular lesions). The histological examination mainly revealed myocardial injury, vascular (dystrophic), pulmonary (circulatory and inflammatory), hepatic (degenerative) and renal (degenerative and inflammatory) damage.
Highlights
The lesions caused by D. immitis can be found at cardiovascular (Kaiser et al, 2004; Mehlhorn 2008), pulmonary, hepatic (McGavin et al, 2007) and renal (Paes-de-Almeida et al, 2003) levels, and generally consist of right heart dilation, profilerative endarteritis, strokes, myocardial collagen matrix thromboses (Wang et al, 2005) degenerative liver damage and kidney ultrastructure alterations
Lesions were noticed in all organs. They were caused by circulatory disorders produced by severe cardiac and vascular parasitism and by the toxic action of the parasites
The examination of the 4 cases revealed the following conclusions: 1. The acute and chronic congestive lesions of the organs were due to the right heart failure following to the parasitism by Dirofilaria immitis; 2
Summary
The lesions caused by D. immitis can be found at cardiovascular (Kaiser et al, 2004; Mehlhorn 2008), pulmonary, hepatic (McGavin et al, 2007) and renal (Paes-de-Almeida et al, 2003) levels, and generally consist of right heart dilation, profilerative endarteritis, strokes, myocardial collagen matrix thromboses (Wang et al, 2005) degenerative liver damage and kidney ultrastructure alterations. There are the pulmonary artery localizations, due to the retrograde movements of parasites that lesion the valvular apparatus and lead to tricuspid retching, and the stronger they
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