Hemophagocytosis and Histoplasma‐like fungal infection in 32 cats

Histoplasmosis is one of the most common systemic fungal diseases in cats from the United States. It commonly causes respiratory or disseminated disease and is often associated with one or more cytopenias. Here, we describe 32 cats in which a Histoplasma‐like fungal infection was associated with con...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inVeterinary clinical pathology Vol. 48; no. 2; pp. 250 - 254
Main Authors Schaefer, Deanna M. W., Rizzi, Theresa E., Royal, Angela B.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.06.2019
Subjects
Anemia
Bone marrow
Cytology
Erythrocytes
feline
Fungal diseases
Fungal infections
hematology
hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis
hemophagocytic syndrome
Hemopoiesis
Hemorrhage
Histoplasmosis
Infections
Leukocytes (neutrophilic)
Lymph nodes
Macrophages
Neutropenia
Pancytopenia
Spleen
Thrombocytopenia
hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis
hematology
feline
hemophagocytic syndrome
bone marrow
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Summary:Histoplasmosis is one of the most common systemic fungal diseases in cats from the United States. It commonly causes respiratory or disseminated disease and is often associated with one or more cytopenias. Here, we describe 32 cats in which a Histoplasma‐like fungal infection was associated with concurrent hemophagia in at least one sample site, commonly spleen, bone marrow, liver, and/or lymph node. The degree of hemophagia was characterized as moderate or marked in the majority of cases, and in all cases, there was a predominance of phagocytized mature erythrocytes. A few cases also had macrophages with phagocytized erythroid precursors, platelets, and/or neutrophils. Complete blood count results were available for 25 cats, and cytopenias were common (20/25), including solitary anemia (10), anemia and thrombocytopenia (5), solitary neutropenia (2), pancytopenia (2), and anemia and neutropenia (1). Bone marrow samples were only available in a small subset of cases, preventing the further assessment of the causes of the cytopenias. Hemophagocytosis has been previously reported in cats with neoplastic diseases and a cat with calicivirus infection, and likely occurs with other conditions as well, such as hemorrhage or hemolysis. Results of this report suggest that systemic fungal disease is an additional differential to consider when there is hemophagia in a feline cytology sample.
ISSN:0275-6382
1939-165X
DOI:10.1111/vcp.12721