Clinical considerations on canine visceral leishmaniasis in Greece: A retrospective study of 158 cases (1989-1996)

The medical records of 158 dogs with visceral leishmaniasis confirmed cytol ogically and/or serologically were reviewed. Ages of affected dogs varied f rom nine months to 15 years, with a male-to-female ratio of 1.3. The most c ommon clinical manifestations of the disease were variable cutaneous lesion s such as exfoliative dermatitis and skin ulcerations, chronic renal failur e, peripheral lymphadenopathy or lymph node hypoplasia, masticatory muscle atrophy (i.e., chronic myositis), ocular lesions (i.e., conjunctivitis, ker atoconjunctivitis sicca, blepharitis, and uveitis), and poor body condition . Ascites, nephrotic syndrome, epistaxis, polyarthritis, and ulcerative sto matitis were seen only in a small number of cases, Clinical splenomegaly wa s not a common finding, The clinicopathological abnormalities were nonregen erative anemia, hyperproteinemia, glomerular proteinuria, and symptomatic o r asymptomatic azotemia, In this study, an indirect immunofluorescence assa y's diagnostic sensitivity was found to be higher than that of lymph node a spiration cytology.