Evidence for a relationship between Leishmania load and clinical manifestations

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a life-threatening disease of medical, social and economic importance in endemic areas. Dogs are the main reservoir of Leishmania infantum. In this study, the authors investigated a group of 56 natural infected dogs to establish the relationship between parasite load and various clinical forms of leishmaniasis. The sick dogs were monitored at the beginning from clinical and physiological point of view. Leishmania load was measured by real-time PCR assay on whole blood samples and lymph node aspirates, collected at the time of diagnosis. Our results indicate that a higher quantity of Leishmania DNA was found in the lymph nodes of dogs characterized by maximum clinical score. This interesting finding indicates the presence of a positive relationship between Leishmania load and clinical manifestations in dogs showing a severe clinical form of leishmaniasis. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.