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The Blood Volume in Ankylostomiasis. With some Biological Notes Relating to the Disease
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 May 2009
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In these experiments the hook-worm anaemia of dogs does not appear to be exactly analogous to the corresponding disease in man, but differs from it in two essential particulars, namely, that only young animals suffer and that in them its course progresses much more rapidly to a fatal termination.
Older dogs, although not altogether insusceptible, acquire infection only to a moderate extent, which gives rise to a minor degree of anaemia. From this they gradually recover, even in spite of repeated and continued attempts at re-infection.
The anaemia in young dogs was characterised by great loss of weight, emaciation, prostration and intestinal haemorrhage, but in no case was expistaxis observed.
The blood volume of dogs suffering from the minor degree of hookworm anaemia is not materially altered, but if anything is somewhat diminished. The oxygen capacity of the blood per unit of body weight is also, on the average, somewhat decreased.
Infection is generally accompanied by distinct though not profuse haemorrhage, which is most marked in the early stages, but tends to disappear.
Eosinophilia was not a constant sign either of infection or of disease.
Evidence of blood regeneration was furnished by the appearance of large numbers of erythroblasts (normoblasts) which increased with the progress of the disease.
Cats are much less easily infected than dogs, and monkeys are altogether insusceptible. Man, also, were found to be insusceptible to infection with the dog hook-worm.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1913
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