Laparoscopic nephron-sparing surgery for the treatment of canine dioctophymosis.

This paper reports on two cases of laparoscopic nephrotomy employed in the treatment of canine dioctophymosis, which is considered a unusual procedure and a new treatment proposal heretofore not performed in veterinary medicine. Two patients were treated, one with a history of hematuria and the other with incidental finding of the parasite in the abdominal cavity during elective ovariohysterectomy. Both dogs were subjected to abdominal ultrasound, which produced images indicating the presence of the parasite in the right side kidney, but with partial parenchymal preservation. The patients were therefore subjected to laparoscopic nephrotomy. The surgical procedure was effective in treating dioctophymosis and enabled minimum tissue invasion during surgery, in addition to preservation of the kidney.

Dioctophyme renale: in vitro culture, production of excretory and secretory antigens, and their use in immunodiagnosis.

The nematode Dioctophyme renale affects mainly the right kidney of domestic and wild mammals, in addition to having zoonotic potential. Therefore, this study aimed to produce excretion and secretion antigens of adult D. renale (DES) to diagnose canine dioctophimosis. To obtain the excretion and secretion antigens (DES), five D. renale adults were maintained for three weeks in supplemented RPMI medium with weekly supernatant collections. After the DES concentration, 2200 mL of the collected supernatant was used, which was centrifuged, followed by two filtrations and dialyzed, resulting in 12.5 mL of DES with a protein concentration of 0.59 mg/mL. The polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) of the DES antigen showed fractions with molecular weights ranging from 30 to 250 Kda. In the indirect ELISA with the DES antigen, the mean absorbance of the positive sera (38) was 0.839 ± 0.267, and the mean of the negative control sera (7) was 0.208 ± 0.083; the specificity and sensitivity of the ELISA were 100 and 97.4 %, respectively, being as effective as the surgical method in the presence of viable parasites. Thus, for the first time, this study describes the production of excretion and secretion antigens of adult D. renale and standardizes an indirect ELISA to diagnose dioctophimosis.

Dioctophimosis: A Parasitic Zoonosis of Public Health Importance.

Dioctophyme renale, the giant kidney worm, is a renal nematode from domestic and wild mammals that has zoonotic potential. In humans, dioctophimosis has been reported in several countries, mainly on the Asian continent, totaling more than 40 cases, which describe the parasite mainly infecting the kidneys, bladder, urethra and skin. Infection in animals and humans is related to the ingestion of the infective larva (L3) present in the aquatic oligochaete annelid (mandatory intermediate host) or fish and anurans (facultative paratenic hosts). Thus, the infection is related to the habit of drinking water contaminated with the mandatory intermediate host, as well as raw or undercooked meat from the facultative paratenic hosts. Dioctophimosis destroys the renal parenchyma and, in some cases, can cause the death of its hosts. In this chapter, we discuss the main topics regarding dioctophimosis in humans, domestic and wild animals, highlighting its importance in public health.