During the period from June 2017 to October 2019, 30 dogs naturally infected with L. infantum, which were previously diagnosed at the Veterinary Hospital of the Federal University of Mato Grosso (HOVET-UFMT), were included in this study. The inclusion criteria were symptoms of CanL, any breed and sex, above 6 months of age, absence of pregnancy/lactation during treatment, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) negativity for Ehrlichia canis, and no previous use of leishmanicidal and leishmaniostatic drugs.
The dogs were divided into two groups: Group M consisted of 15 dogs treated with a single 2 mg/kg, daily oral dose of miltefosine (Milteforan™, Virbac) for 28 days; Group MA consisted of 15 dogs treated with miltefosine (same dose as Group M) plus a 20 mg/kg oral dose of allopurinol, twice a day, for 28 days. In this study, there was no control group to assess the placebo effect of the drugs, since the disease is progressive and leads to death if no treatment is instituted; therefore, it goes against the ethical principles of CEUA/UFMT.
The dogs were examined before treatment (D0) and after 28 days of treatment (D29). A total of 14 clinical signs (clinical score [CS]), and eight clinical-pathological variables (clinical-pathological score [CPS]) were assessed using a categorized scoring system, adapted from Miró et al. [15 (link)] and Bruno et al. [16 (link)] (Table-1).
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