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First Autochthonous Infection of a Cat with Dirofilaria immitis in Austria

This case report is about a seven-year-old male neutered European Shorthair cat infected by Dirofilaria immitis as the first reported autochthonous Dirofilaria immitis infection in Austria. There was no history of periods abroad. Echocardiography showed suspected D. immitis in the right cardiac cham...

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Autores principales: Kulmer, Lisa-Maria, Unterköfler, Maria Sophia, Fuehrer, Hans-Peter, Janovska, Varvara, Pagac, Matus, Svoboda, Michaela, Venco, Luigi, Leschnik, Michael
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8466588/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34578137
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10091104
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author Kulmer, Lisa-Maria
Unterköfler, Maria Sophia
Fuehrer, Hans-Peter
Janovska, Varvara
Pagac, Matus
Svoboda, Michaela
Venco, Luigi
Leschnik, Michael
author_facet Kulmer, Lisa-Maria
Unterköfler, Maria Sophia
Fuehrer, Hans-Peter
Janovska, Varvara
Pagac, Matus
Svoboda, Michaela
Venco, Luigi
Leschnik, Michael
author_sort Kulmer, Lisa-Maria
collection PubMed
description This case report is about a seven-year-old male neutered European Shorthair cat infected by Dirofilaria immitis as the first reported autochthonous Dirofilaria immitis infection in Austria. There was no history of periods abroad. Echocardiography showed suspected D. immitis in the right cardiac chamber with increased pulmonary pressure and ascites. Surgical removal of the heartworms was performed. Twenty adult heartworms were removed by transvenous jugular approach under general anesthesia and stored in 4% formalin. Five out of 20 specimens were examined via light and stereomicroscopy and feline heartworm infection was confirmed. Amplification of a 203 bp or 724 bp fragment of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene was unsuccessful. After surgery the cat developed acute renal failure but recovered quickly. One year later, the cat underwent a control examination including echocardiography and blood work. There were no more D. immitis detectable at echocardiography. Lung pressure was mildly increased. Complete blood count and creatinine were unremarkable. The Knott’s test and Dirofilaria-Antigen-test produced negative results. The cat did not show any clinical signs during the follow-up period. The aim of this case report is to highlight the growing risk of acquiring infection with D. immitis not only for Austrian dogs, but also for cats. This case report represents the first report of autochthonous D. immitis infection in Austria. Moreover, even if the prognosis in cats with caval syndrome due to feline heartworm disease is guarded to poor, surgical removal of the filariae can be a successful treatment option.
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spelling pubmed-84665882021-09-27 First Autochthonous Infection of a Cat with Dirofilaria immitis in Austria Kulmer, Lisa-Maria Unterköfler, Maria Sophia Fuehrer, Hans-Peter Janovska, Varvara Pagac, Matus Svoboda, Michaela Venco, Luigi Leschnik, Michael Pathogens Case Report This case report is about a seven-year-old male neutered European Shorthair cat infected by Dirofilaria immitis as the first reported autochthonous Dirofilaria immitis infection in Austria. There was no history of periods abroad. Echocardiography showed suspected D. immitis in the right cardiac chamber with increased pulmonary pressure and ascites. Surgical removal of the heartworms was performed. Twenty adult heartworms were removed by transvenous jugular approach under general anesthesia and stored in 4% formalin. Five out of 20 specimens were examined via light and stereomicroscopy and feline heartworm infection was confirmed. Amplification of a 203 bp or 724 bp fragment of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene was unsuccessful. After surgery the cat developed acute renal failure but recovered quickly. One year later, the cat underwent a control examination including echocardiography and blood work. There were no more D. immitis detectable at echocardiography. Lung pressure was mildly increased. Complete blood count and creatinine were unremarkable. The Knott’s test and Dirofilaria-Antigen-test produced negative results. The cat did not show any clinical signs during the follow-up period. The aim of this case report is to highlight the growing risk of acquiring infection with D. immitis not only for Austrian dogs, but also for cats. This case report represents the first report of autochthonous D. immitis infection in Austria. Moreover, even if the prognosis in cats with caval syndrome due to feline heartworm disease is guarded to poor, surgical removal of the filariae can be a successful treatment option. MDPI 2021-08-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8466588/ /pubmed/34578137 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10091104 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Case Report
Kulmer, Lisa-Maria
Unterköfler, Maria Sophia
Fuehrer, Hans-Peter
Janovska, Varvara
Pagac, Matus
Svoboda, Michaela
Venco, Luigi
Leschnik, Michael
First Autochthonous Infection of a Cat with Dirofilaria immitis in Austria
title First Autochthonous Infection of a Cat with Dirofilaria immitis in Austria
title_full First Autochthonous Infection of a Cat with Dirofilaria immitis in Austria
title_fullStr First Autochthonous Infection of a Cat with Dirofilaria immitis in Austria
title_full_unstemmed First Autochthonous Infection of a Cat with Dirofilaria immitis in Austria
title_short First Autochthonous Infection of a Cat with Dirofilaria immitis in Austria
title_sort first autochthonous infection of a cat with dirofilaria immitis in austria
topic Case Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8466588/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34578137
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10091104
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