Arterial blood pressure changes in acute <i>T. brucei</i> infection of dogs

Abstract

The aim of this study is to find out the usefulness of serial arterial blood pressure measurements in predicting severity and outcome of acute Trypanosoma brucei infection in dogs. Twenty adult dogs of mixed sexes and aged between 2 and 5 years were used for this study. The dogs were of good cardiac health and were divided into two groups of infected and uninfected. The infected groups were inoculated with 1×106 of PBS lafenwa strain of T. brucei intraperitoneally. The systolic arterial pressure (SAP), Diastolic arterial pressure (DAP), and mean arterial pressure  (MAP) were recorded before and serially at days eight, sixteen and twenty four post infection. The SAP of control dogs (119.62±3.77) was not different from the SAP on days 8(118.83±0.75), 16(120.33 ± 4.04) and 24(123.14±6.84).The DAP of the infected dogs on day8 (52.87±7.90), day 16(56.00±8.54) and day24  (48.42±7.97) is not different from the control value of 52.87±7.90. The MAP of the infected dogs on day 8 (77.00±1.41), day 16(72.66±2.88) and day24 (73.51± 3.53) is not significantly different from the control value of 76.00±6.80. A value of two standard deviation below the control mean was defined as hypotension and therefore a SAP<112mmhg, DAP <36mmhg, and MAP <62mmhg was regarded as cutoff point for hypotension in the breed of dog studied. All the control and the infected dogs were therefore not considered hypotensive. The result of the present study has shown that acute T .brucei infection does not alter the blood pressure of infected dogs and arterial blood pressure does not predict severity and outcome of the infection.