Clinical and Pathological Aspects of Canine Cutaneous Leishmaniasis: A Meta-analysis

• Published in: Acta parasitologica 2019-12, Vol.64 (4), p.916-922
• Main Authors: Oliveira, Caroline Sobotyk, Ratzlaff, Fabiana Raquel, Pötter, Luciana, Romão, Pedro Roosevelt Torres, Botton, Sônia de Avila, Vogel, Fernanda Silveira Flores, Sangioni, Luis Antonio
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography; Animals; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cachexia; Cutaneous leishmaniasis; Dog Diseases - parasitology; Dog Diseases - pathology; Dogs; Ecology; Emotional behavior; Enlargement; Leishmania - pathogenicity; Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous - complications; Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous - pathology; Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous - veterinary; Leishmaniasis, Visceral - parasitology; Lesions; Literature reviews; Lymph nodes; Medical Microbiology; Meta-analysis; Microbiology; Organs; Parasitic diseases; Parasitology; Short Communication; Signs and symptoms; Skin diseases; Skin lesions; Spleen; Vector-borne diseases; Weight loss
• ISSN: 1230-2821; 1896-1851
• DOI: 10.2478/s11686-019-00063-7

Purpose In the present study, we described the most prevalent clinical symptoms, the most affected organs, and the macro and microscopic lesions associated with cutaneous leishmaniasis. Methods Two independent researchers performed an extensive systematic review of the literature in four stages (identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion) to identify studies published between January 2002 and November 2018 from the following electronic databases: Web of Science, PubMed, SciELO, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. Meta-analysis was conducted in “Metaprop” package of R 3.4.2 software. Results The electronic search yielded 3896 results, out of which 155 were further analyzed based on the full-text. Data extracted from 16 articles were included in the meta-analysis, representing a total of 430 leishmaniasis cases. Only 43% of all animals were identified to exhibit the clinical and cutaneous changes characteristic of leishmaniasis based on the observation that skin lesions were the most prevalent clinical sign and were present in 86% of all cases. Other less prevalent symptoms included weight loss, cachexia, apathy and lymph node enlargement. Histopathological analysis showed that the skin was the most affected organ, affecting 64% of cases, followed by lymph nodes (12%), spleen (8%) and liver (7%). Conclusions Therefore, our current findings suggest that cutaneous leishmaniasis could lead to visceral disease. Notably, our findings indicated no clinical manifestation patterns in cutaneous leishmaniasis, since the same host species may present different clinical conditions.