Utility of thoracic ultrasonography in a rapid diagnosis of angiostrongylosis in young dogs presenting with respiratory distress

Abstract The nematode, Angiostrongylus vasorum, lives in the pulmonary arteries of canids and has an obligate gastropod intermediate host. It causes various clinical signs, mostly acute respiratory distress and/or haemorrhagic diathesis. Younger dogs ( We identified small hypoechoic subpleural nodules in 15/26 dogs; 14 of these were subsequently confirmed to have angiostrongylosis by faecal Baermann concentration test, A. vasorum antigen testing or both. The remaining 11 dogs without subpleural nodules had negative faecal analysis and A. vasorum antigen testing and diagnosed with other respiratory diseases. This resulted in a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 92% for the detection of angiostrongylosis by thoracic ultrasonography in young dogs presenting with respiratory distress. Our results suggest that thoracic ultrasonography might offer a safe, rapid, relatively accurate diagnostic test for diagnosis of angiostrongylosis in young adult dogs with respiratory distress living in endemic areas.