Bone-marrow changes in infectious diseases and lymphohaemopoietic neoplasias in dogs and cats--a retrospective study

Bone-marrow changes in infectious diseases due to feline infectious peritonitis virus (FIPV), feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), parvovirus (PV, canine and feline) and canine distemper virus (CDV), and in the lymphohaemopoietic neoplasias (LHNs) usually associated with feline leukaemia virus infection were studied in samples obtained from 204 cats and 82 dogs at necropsy. The study demonstrated (1) no changes, (2) non-specific reactive changes, and (3) disease-specific changes (similar to those occurring in extramedullary sites) in: 51.2, 48.8 and 9.7% of 41 cases of FIPV infection, respectively; 0, 100 and 0% of nine cases of FIV infection, respectively; 1.3, 0 and 92% of 75 cases of canine PV infection, respectively; 5.3, 3.9 and 84% of 76 cases of feline PV infection, respectively; 71.4, 28.6 and 0% of seven cases of CDV infection, respectively; and 35.9, 52.6 and 11.5% of 78 cases of LHN, respectively. The distribution of the disease-specific bone-marrow changes was either diffuse or focal; diffuse changes were frequently found in cases of feline and canine PV infection, and focal changes were found inconsistently in FIPV infections and feline LHN. To the extent that the bone marrow showed any changes in FIV and CDV infections, they were mostly reactive and not pathognomonic.