TY - JOUR ID - 35912 TI - Leptospirosis and immune-mediated hemolytic anemia: A lethal association JO - Veterinary Research Forum JA - VRF LA - en SN - 2008-8140 AU - Furlanello, Tommaso AU - Reale, Ida AD - San Marco Veterinary Clinic and Laboratory, Veggiano, Italy Y1 - 2019 PY - 2019 VL - 10 IS - 3 SP - 261 EP - 265 KW - Bile Acids KW - Dog KW - Immune-mediated hemolytic anemia KW - Immunosuppressive therapy KW - Leptospirosis DO - 10.30466/vrf.2019.99876.2385 N2 - Immune-mediated hemolytic anemia (IMHA) is a common cause of anemia in dogs. The immune aggression towards erythrocytes can be triggered by many pathological conditions such as infection, inflammatory disease or neoplasia. Upon ruling out any eliciting conditions, a diagnosis of the primary immune-mediated disease can be made. In this particular case of severe anemia (tested positive for circulating antibodies against red blood cells with flow cytometry), vector-borne diseases (which are a common cause of immunopathology in Mediterranean countries) were excluded, leptospirosis was not. This resulted in an unsuccessful immunosuppressive therapy with prednisone, two whole blood transfusions and ultimately death of the patient. Leptospirosis (confirmed positive in two tests, micro-agglutination test for antibodies and PCR for microbial DNA in urine), can mimic a primary IMHA and must be considered in its differential list of causes. A liver involvement, that included elevated serum activity of liver enzymes and increased serum bile acid was observed at the admission and suggested an etiopathogenesis other than a primary IMHA. UR - https://vrf.iranjournals.ir/article_35912.html L1 - https://vrf.iranjournals.ir/article_35912_94ba4a4f2b3b034186f1e5ccd1242669.pdf ER -