Bartonella spp. as a Possible Cause or Cofactor of Feline Endomyocarditis–Left Ventricular Endocardial Fibrosis Complex

Publication date: July 2018Source: Journal of Comparative Pathology, Volume 162Author(s): T.A. Donovan, N. Balakrishnan, I. Carvalho Barbosa, T. McCoy, E.B. Breitschwerdt, P.R. FoxSummaryEndomyocarditis is a commonly detected post-mortem finding in domestic cats presenting for sudden onset cardiovascular death, yet the aetiology remains unresolved. Cats are documented reservoir hosts for Bartonella henselae, the infectious cause of cat scratch disease in man. Various Bartonella spp. have been associated with culture-negative endocarditis, myocarditis and sudden death in man and animals. We hypothesized that Bartonella spp. DNA could be amplified more often from the hearts of cats with feline endomyocarditis–left ventricular endocardial fibrosis (FEMC–LVEF) complex compared with cats with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) or cats with grossly and microscopically unremarkable hearts (designated non-cardiac disease controls). Formalin-fixed and paraffin wax-embedded, cardiac tissues from 60 domestic and purebred cats aged 3 months to 18 years were examined, and histological features were recorded. Cardiac tissue sections were tested for Bartonella DNA using multiple 16–23S intergenic transcribed spacer region polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primer sets, including two Bartonella genera, a Bartonellakoehlerae species-specific and a Bartonella vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii-specific assay, followed by DNA sequence confirmation of the species or genotype. Special precautions were ...
Source: Journal of Comparative Pathology - Category: Pathology Source Type: research