Selected cardiac abnormalities in Trypanosoma cruzi serologically positive, discordant, and negative working dogs along the Texas-Mexico border
Abstract Background Chagas disease is increasingly recognized in the southern U.S., where triatomine vectors transmit Trypanosoma cruzi among wildlife and domestic dogs with occasional vector spillover to humans. As in humans, clinical outcome in dogs is variable, ranging from acute death to asympto...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2020-03-01
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| Series: | BMC Veterinary Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12917-020-02322-6 |
| _version_ | 1818162011756822528 |
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| author | Alyssa C. Meyers Megan M. Ellis Julia C. Purnell Lisa D. Auckland Marvin Meinders Ashley B. Saunders Sarah A. Hamer |
| author_facet | Alyssa C. Meyers Megan M. Ellis Julia C. Purnell Lisa D. Auckland Marvin Meinders Ashley B. Saunders Sarah A. Hamer |
| author_sort | Alyssa C. Meyers |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Chagas disease is increasingly recognized in the southern U.S., where triatomine vectors transmit Trypanosoma cruzi among wildlife and domestic dogs with occasional vector spillover to humans. As in humans, clinical outcome in dogs is variable, ranging from acute death to asymptomatic infections or chronic heart disease. In order to characterize cardiac manifestations of T. cruzi infections, we tracked a cohort of naturally-infected dogs and a matched cohort of uninfected dogs. We hypothesized that selected measures of cardiac disease (abnormal rate, abnormal rhythm, and elevated cardiac troponin I (cTnI; a biomarker of cardiac injury)) would occur more commonly in infected than uninfected dogs matched by age, breed, sex and location. In addition to the clearly positive and negative dogs, we specifically tracked dogs with discordant test results across three independent serological assays to gather clinical data that might elucidate the infection status of these animals and inform the utility of the different testing approaches. Results We placed an ambulatory ECG monitor (Holter) on 48 government working dogs and analyzed 39 successful recordings that met length and quality criteria from 17 T. cruzi-infected, 18 uninfected dogs and 4 dogs with discordant results. Overall, 76.5% of positive, 100.0% of discordant, and 11.1% of negative dogs showed > 1 ECG abnormality (p < 0.0001), and positive and discordant dogs had a higher mean number of different types of ECG abnormalities than negative dogs (p < 0.001–0.014). The most common cardiac abnormalities included supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias and atrioventricular block. Positive dogs had higher serum concentrations of cTnI than both negative dogs (p = 0.044) and discordant dogs (p = 0.06). Based on dog handler reports, nearly all (4/5; 80%) dogs with reported performance decline or fatigue were T. cruzi-infected dogs. Conclusions Further understanding cardiac manifestations in dogs naturally infected with T. cruzi is critical for prognostication, establishing a baseline for drug and vaccine studies, and better understanding of zoonotic risk. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T16:26:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-89ba9cac3d2c4bffa598f6020e5f9940 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1746-6148 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T16:26:53Z |
| publishDate | 2020-03-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Veterinary Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-89ba9cac3d2c4bffa598f6020e5f99402022-12-22T00:58:42ZengBMCBMC Veterinary Research1746-61482020-03-0116111210.1186/s12917-020-02322-6Selected cardiac abnormalities in Trypanosoma cruzi serologically positive, discordant, and negative working dogs along the Texas-Mexico borderAlyssa C. Meyers0Megan M. Ellis1Julia C. Purnell2Lisa D. Auckland3Marvin Meinders4Ashley B. Saunders5Sarah A. Hamer6Veterinary Integrative Biosciences Department, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M UniversityCollege of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State UniversityVeterinary Integrative Biosciences Department, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M UniversityVeterinary Integrative Biosciences Department, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M UniversityNational Association of Federal VeterinariansVeterinary Integrative Biosciences Department, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M UniversityVeterinary Integrative Biosciences Department, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M UniversityAbstract Background Chagas disease is increasingly recognized in the southern U.S., where triatomine vectors transmit Trypanosoma cruzi among wildlife and domestic dogs with occasional vector spillover to humans. As in humans, clinical outcome in dogs is variable, ranging from acute death to asymptomatic infections or chronic heart disease. In order to characterize cardiac manifestations of T. cruzi infections, we tracked a cohort of naturally-infected dogs and a matched cohort of uninfected dogs. We hypothesized that selected measures of cardiac disease (abnormal rate, abnormal rhythm, and elevated cardiac troponin I (cTnI; a biomarker of cardiac injury)) would occur more commonly in infected than uninfected dogs matched by age, breed, sex and location. In addition to the clearly positive and negative dogs, we specifically tracked dogs with discordant test results across three independent serological assays to gather clinical data that might elucidate the infection status of these animals and inform the utility of the different testing approaches. Results We placed an ambulatory ECG monitor (Holter) on 48 government working dogs and analyzed 39 successful recordings that met length and quality criteria from 17 T. cruzi-infected, 18 uninfected dogs and 4 dogs with discordant results. Overall, 76.5% of positive, 100.0% of discordant, and 11.1% of negative dogs showed > 1 ECG abnormality (p < 0.0001), and positive and discordant dogs had a higher mean number of different types of ECG abnormalities than negative dogs (p < 0.001–0.014). The most common cardiac abnormalities included supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias and atrioventricular block. Positive dogs had higher serum concentrations of cTnI than both negative dogs (p = 0.044) and discordant dogs (p = 0.06). Based on dog handler reports, nearly all (4/5; 80%) dogs with reported performance decline or fatigue were T. cruzi-infected dogs. Conclusions Further understanding cardiac manifestations in dogs naturally infected with T. cruzi is critical for prognostication, establishing a baseline for drug and vaccine studies, and better understanding of zoonotic risk.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12917-020-02322-6Chagas diseaseDogElectrocardiogramCardiac troponin IZoonotic diseaseEpidemiology |
| spellingShingle | Alyssa C. Meyers Megan M. Ellis Julia C. Purnell Lisa D. Auckland Marvin Meinders Ashley B. Saunders Sarah A. Hamer Selected cardiac abnormalities in Trypanosoma cruzi serologically positive, discordant, and negative working dogs along the Texas-Mexico border BMC Veterinary Research Chagas disease Dog Electrocardiogram Cardiac troponin I Zoonotic disease Epidemiology |
| title | Selected cardiac abnormalities in Trypanosoma cruzi serologically positive, discordant, and negative working dogs along the Texas-Mexico border |
| title_full | Selected cardiac abnormalities in Trypanosoma cruzi serologically positive, discordant, and negative working dogs along the Texas-Mexico border |
| title_fullStr | Selected cardiac abnormalities in Trypanosoma cruzi serologically positive, discordant, and negative working dogs along the Texas-Mexico border |
| title_full_unstemmed | Selected cardiac abnormalities in Trypanosoma cruzi serologically positive, discordant, and negative working dogs along the Texas-Mexico border |
| title_short | Selected cardiac abnormalities in Trypanosoma cruzi serologically positive, discordant, and negative working dogs along the Texas-Mexico border |
| title_sort | selected cardiac abnormalities in trypanosoma cruzi serologically positive discordant and negative working dogs along the texas mexico border |
| topic | Chagas disease Dog Electrocardiogram Cardiac troponin I Zoonotic disease Epidemiology |
| url | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12917-020-02322-6 |
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