• Journal of the korean veterinary medical association
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.497-499
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• 1985

Blood sample from 155 Korean Jindo dogs were examined for canine filariae, using the modified Knott test. Most of the blood samples were collected bet-ween 1 : 00 and 5 : 00 p. m. from July to November, 1984. Dirofilaria immitis was found in 19 ($12.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Veterinary Clinics Conference
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.632-632
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• 2007

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.729-739
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• 2000

Echocardiography, vital signs, microfilaremia, and blood chemistry of 12 Jindo dogs naturally infected with canine heartworms (Dirofilaria immitis) were analysed and compared with those of 5 uninfected control Jindo dogs. Nine of the twelve infected dogs contained microfiaria in the peripheral blood, whereas the presence of adult heartworms in the pulmonary arteries and/or in the heart was detected from four dogs by echocardiography. Among the four echocardiography-positive dogs, two dogs also displayed evidence of heartworms in the right ventricle by echocardiography. Upon necropsy, a total of 547 adult worms was collected from the 12 infected dogs (av = 45.6, range = 9-166). Dogs with positive echocardiograpic images of heartworms contained 48, 74, 104 and 166 adult worms in the heart, pulmonary arteries and/or in the caudal vena cava (av. 98.0), whereas 9 to 39 worms (av. 19.4) were collected from those organs of dogs with negative echocardiography. Most heartworms were found in the right ventricle (438, 80%) at necropsy, whereas relatively fewer worms were found in the pulmonary arteries (96, 17.6%), and in the caudal vena cava (13, 2.4%). The necropsy findings on the location of adult worms significantly differed from the results of echocardiographic analysis in which the right ventricle of most dogs did not show the presence of heartworms. These results indicated that the adult heartworms had been located in the terminal branches of the pulmonary arteries when the host was alive, but the worms moved toward the right ventricle shortly after the heart of the infected dogs stopped beating. Microfilaremia in the peripheral blood was the highest in the blood samples collected at 10 pm. However, the correlation between the number of microfilaria and of adult worms was not observed. Clinical and vital signs of infected dogs did not show any significant difference before and after a 30 minute-exercise at 5 km/hr compared to those of uninfected control dogs.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.53-54
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• 2014

This study was conducted to determine the serum cardiac troponin I (cTnI) concentrations in clinically normal (uninfected) Korean Jindo dogs and those infected with Dirofilaria (D.) immitis. Forty Korean Jindo dogs (22 females, 18 males) were obtained from two kennels in the Boryeong area of Chungnam Province and the Daejeon area, Korea. Significantly higher cTnI concentrations were observed in D. immitis-infected dogs than clinically normal dogs. cTnI testing in addition to thoracic radiography, echocardiography, and electrocardiography shows promise as an additional method for diagnosis of heartworm infection.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.673-677
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• 2017

The present study was performed to investigate the seroprevalence and risk factors for Dirofilaria immitis infection in cats from Liaoning province, northeastern China. From October 2014 to September 2016, sera of 651 cats, including 364 domestic cats and 287 feral cats (332 females and 319 males) were assessed. They were tested for the presence of D. immitis antigen using SNAP Heartworm RT test kit. In this population, the average prevalence was 4.5%. Age and rearing conditions (feral or domestic) were found to be associated with the prevalence of D. immitis. The prevalence was significantly higher in feral cats compared with domestic cats (8.4% vs 1.4%, P<0.01). There was no significant difference between males and females (4.7% vs 4.2%, P>0.05), but older cats (${\geq}3$ years old) showed a statistically higher prevalence compared with younger cats (<3 years old) in feral populations (16.8 vs 2.4%, P<0.01), while the difference between the age groups was not statistically significant in domestic cats (2.4% vs 0.51%, P>0.05), all these results suggest that outdoor exposure time may be one of the most important factors for D. immitis prevalence in cats. Results reveal that D. immitis are prevalence in domestic and feral cats in northeastern China, which indicates that appropriate preventive measures should be taken to decrease the incidence of feline heartworm disease in Liaoning province, northeastern China.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.311-316
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• 2009

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to collect data from the literatures reporting prevalence of canine heartworm (HW) infection in an effort to emphasize the preventive importance of the disease and to serve as baseline data for further studies related to the disease management. Fourteen studies regarding the prevalence of HW infection published during the 1996-2007 were identified using the meta-analytic approach, involving a total of 1,790 cases by microfilarial test and 3,277 cases by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) antigen test for adult worms. Data analysis was performed separately for pet and military dogs. The overall apparent prevalence of HW infection in pet dogs by microfilarial test and ELISA was 11.7% (183/1,563) and 16.5% (379/2,302), respectively (p < 0.001). No significant difference in prevalence by microfilaria and ELISA was observed between sexes whether assessed by data separately or pooled together. Compared to before 2000, the prevalence by microfilaria after 2000 has increased from 2.5% to 13.1% (p < 0.001), and the rate of adult worm has also increased from 9.9% to 20.3% (p < 0.001). The prevalence determined by ELISA was found to increase with age: 20.7% (n = 1,003) of dogs older than 2 years were positive, compared with 5.0% of dogs (n = 701) under 2 years of age (p < 0.001). Also, outdoor dogs showed significantly higher prevalence than indoor dogs (37.9% versus 3.4%; p < 0.001). For military dogs, the overall prevalence was 38.3% (87/227; 95% CI, 32.1 - 44.7%) by microfilarial test and 38.5% (375/975; 95% CI, 35.4 - 41.6%) by ELISA. This rate was significantly higher than that of pet dogs (p < 0.001). Occult infection rate of 37.5% and 66.7% was found in pet and military dogs, respectively.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2014

Dirofilaria immitis (heartworm) infections affect domestic dogs, cats, and various wild mammals with increasing incidence in temperate and tropical areas. More sensitive antibody detection methodologies are required to diagnose asymptomatic dirofilariasis with low worm burdens. Applying current transcriptomic technologies would be useful to discover potential diagnostic markers for D. immitis infection. A filarial homologue of the mammalian translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) was initially identified by screening the assembled transcriptome of D. immitis (DiTCTP). A BLAST analysis suggested that the DiTCTP gene shared the highest similarity with TCTP from Loa loa at protein level (97%). A histidine-tagged recombinant DiTCTP protein (rDiTCTP) of 40 kDa expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) showed immunoreactivity with serum from a dog experimentally infected with heartworms. Localization studies illustrated the ubiquitous presence of rDiTCTP protein in the lateral hypodermal chords, dorsal hypodermal chord, muscle, intestine, and uterus in female adult worms. Further studies on D. immitis-derived TCTP are warranted to assess whether this filarial protein could be used for a diagnostic purpose.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.600-604
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• 2010

A ten-year-old female mongrel dog was presented to Veterinary Medical Center, Chungbuk National University with the signs of anorexia, weakness, and hemoglobinuria. Patient had been diagnosed as dirofilariasis based on heartworm antigen test and treated with adulticide (melarsomine) at local hospital one day before admission. On laboratory examinations, there were hypochromic and microcytic regenerative anemia, thrombocytopenia, moderate neutrophilia, and increase ALT, AST, and ALP. Radiographic exam showed main pulmonary artery bulging, pulmonary infiltration and hypervascularity, reduced abdominal serosal detail and mild hepatomegaly. Abdominal ultrasonographic exam showed mild peritoneal effusion and large hyperechoic thrombi at trifurcation of the porta hepatica and the splenic vein. In addition, intraluminal low density area and intravascular filling defect were confirmed on contrast enhanced CT scanning at the same anatomic locations. Patient was treated with anticoagulant and thrombolytic therapy. On day 42 after treatment, complete resolution of thrombi was confirmed via ultrasonography and improvement of clinical signs was observed.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.146-151
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• 2008

During the clinical decision making practitioners are often faced with performing diagnostic tests to solve the presenting problems seen in the patients. The diagnostic utility of a test has traditionally been described by technical terms such as sensitivity, specificity, and positive (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV). Although well known, clinicians are frequently unclear about the concept and application of these terms in everyday evidence-based clinical decision making. Sensitivity and specificity, which are intrinsic properties of diagnostic tests, summarizes the characteristics of the test over a population. The PPV and NPV are greatly dependent on the population prevalence of disease, and thus they do not transferable to different patients or clinical settings. Besides, considering the fact that clinicians more often interested in knowing the extent to which a test result could confirm or exclude of a condition under consideration (posttest probability), these measures do not provide answers on this question. The likelihood ratios (LR) using the information contained in sensitivity and specificity are becoming increasingly popular for reporting the usefulness of diagnostic tests because this term provide an indication of posttest probability as a function of the pretest probability. In this article, clinical applications of LR are illustrated with some practical examples. Discussion is also included of the inherent limitations regarding diagnostic test characteristics.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.303-306
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• 2008

Unknown age, spayed female mixed dog was presented with a severe lethargy. Radiography, ultrasonography, and blood screen test were performed to make a diagnosis. There were no specific radiographic findings. On the ultrasonography, small amount of ascites was found around gallbladder and hepatic vein was dilated approximately 6.1 mm. Blood screen test revealed a severe anemia. Result of heartworm ELISA kit was positive. At necropsy, parasites were in the left atrium, right ventricles, aorta, pulmonary artery, right renal artery.