Immunodeficiency in a young dog

From: Anne Avery, DVM, PHD (aavery@CVMBS.COLOSTATE.EDU)
Date: Tue Mar 21 2000 - 08:47:02 EST


Hello list,
Although this is not a strictly flow question, I was hoping some of the
clinical types might have some suggestions.  We are working with a 6
month old puppy with recurrent fevers that are antibiotic responsive.
His white count has ranged from 30,000 to 80,000, mostly mature
neutrophils (normal high for dogs about 15,000).  His blood has been
cultured several times and has been negative (but he was on antibiotics
at the time).
We carried out the following studies:
1)  Immunophenotyping for CD3, CD4, CD5, CD8, CD14, CD21 and class II
(all normal)
2)  Immunoglobulin quantification:  IgG normal, IgA normal, IgM 7 times
normal
3)  NBT assay for neutrophil function: normal
4)  Flow cytometry with CD11c and CD11d (to rule out the possibility of
a leukocyte adhesion deficiency): normal in comparison to controls
(although we don't have much experience staining with these
antibodies).  In addition, the dog has had a single abcess that was
loaded with neuts, suggesting that they can migrate out of vessels.
5)  PCR for antigen receptor rearrangements to rule out
lymphoma/lymphocytic leukemia on the peripheral blood: negative.

Protein and immunoelectrophoresis pending to rule out an IgM producing
monoclonal gammopathy, but we don't think that he has this disease.
Complement levels pending as well.

If this were a human patient, what else would be done to identify the
disease process?  We are attempting to use a conjugated CD40ligand to
stain for CD40, but we have never done this in dogs before.  Are these
signs consistent with a hyper IgM syndrome, or do those patients have
no IgG or A at all?

We have considered CML, but he seems young for this.  Unfortunately,
there are no specific molecular markers to identify CML in dogs as
there are in people, so this might have to be a diagnosis of exclusion.
Are CMLs associated with increased susceptibility to infections in
people?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Anne

====================================
Anne Avery, VMD, PHD
Department of Pathology
Colorado State Univ
Ft. Collins, CO 80523-1671, USA
  voice:(970)491-1170
  fax:(970)491-0603

aavery@cvmbs.colostate.edu
====================================



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