Small Animal/Exotics
WEBMED
Y O U R V E T E R I N A RY E D U C AT I O N A L A D V I S O R
FELINE HEARTWORM DISEASE
ALSO WORTH A LOOK
With respect to performing antigen
and antibody tests on cats suspected
of having heartworm disease, the
following two web sites expertly
interpret the various combinations
of test results. Although neither
site is as extensive as is the web site
featured, they do offer quick access
to information that is often difficult
to obtain and/or confusing to
understand:
“Feline Heartworm Disease”
by the Heartworm Society
http://www.heartwormsociety.
org/feline.htm
“Feline Heartworm Disease”
by Drs. David K. Rosen
and Ann R. Donoghue
http://www.heska.com/
HESKA/products/hw/
feline_hw_disease.htm
Compendium September 2000
ighlighted this month is a web site on feline heartworm disease that is
H an exceptionally well-done clinical resource. The site offers current
information on topics ranging from the biology of the disease to the
interpretation of antigen versus antibody test results to an excellent review of
the various treatment and management options available today. Because feline
and canine heartworm diseases are distinctly different, access to this web site is
especially important for anyone who practices feline medicine and is definitely
worth bookmarking for future reference.
Searching the Web are well written and organized and of-
The initial search for heartworm disease fer information that is relevant to clinical
practitioners (see Also Worth a Look).
Search for heartworm disease Search
Of these three, the site featured in
this column offers the most extensive
recovered more than 2000 web site ad-
information.
dresses that included some reference to
canine and/or feline heartworm disease.
■ WEB ADDRESS
However, refining that search to feline
http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/
heartworm disease
distance/cardio/all.html
Search for feline heartworm disease Search
■ NAME OF SITE
Auburn University College of
yielded about 270 sites, and the search Veterinary Medicine, Feline
for canine heartworm disease Heartworm Disease
■ USE FEE
Search for canine heartworm disease Search None
Search ■ SITE AUTHOR
revealed 266 sites. A majority of these Ray Dillon, DVM, Diplomate
sites (approximately 99%) clearly and ACVIM, Professor of Medicine,
exclusively target pet owners, and the Auburn University College of
information provided is therefore too Veterinary Medicine
superficial to be of educational value to
veterinarians. Of the sites that do offer HOME PAGE. After reaching the
educationally based medical informa- university’s home page, users can
tion on feline heartworm disease, three “Search the Site” to access the home
Compendium September 2000
page for feline heartworm disease
(the URL provided is a link directly
to the feline heartworm page). This
page allows the user to access several
areas, including an introduction and
table of contents for each of four
parts, or sections; any one of the four
parts (biology, pathology and clinical
presentation, diagnosis, or clinical
management); terminology; abstracts
on feline heartworm disease; a bio-
graphic sketch of Dr. Dillon; or the
entire document.
HIGHLIGHTS. Overall, this site is
well written and applicable to the
management of feline heartworm
disease in clinical practice. Several
photographs, graphs, and incidence
charts are easy to access with a single
click of the mouse. A built-in glos-
sary of medical terms is available and
is a useful device. A strong feature of
this web site is its abundant use of
links to published abstracts that are
directly pertinent to the topic being
discussed. The following site review
briefly summarizes the major menu
selections.
Part 1—Biology: The biology of
Dirofilaria immitis infection in cats is
well worth the few minutes it takes
to read. Clearly, feline heartworm
disease is not the same as canine
heartworm disease, and a basic re-
view of the differences adds consider-
ably to the understanding of the
clinical events related to this infec-
tion in cats. The life cycle of D. im-
mitis, which is included in the pre-
sentation, reinforces the biologic
explanation of the different clinical
presentations of feline and canine
heartworm disease.
Part 2—Pathology and Clinical
Disease: This section examines the
general pulmonary pathology of
heartworm disease in cats and its sim-
ilarity to that in dogs and provides
pertinent information on clinical pre-
sentation of the disease, including
clinical signs, history, physical exami-
nation, clinical pathology, and blood
chemistries and urinalysis.
Part 3—Diagnosis: This section is
particularly important for practicing
veterinarians and reviews the
three serologic methods of di-
agnosing feline heartworm dis-
ease and seven diagnostic pa-
rameters, ranging from antigen
and antibody testing to echo-
cardiography to tracheal cytol-
Small Animal/Exotics
ogy. Each parameter is expertly sum-
marized, and the indications and in-
terpretations for each test are thor-
oughly discussed.
Part 4—Treatment: This section
discusses how the treatment of cats
infected with D. immitis can be a
lose–lose proposition and reviews in
considerable detail the pros and cons
of adulticidal therapy, postadulticidal
consequences, efficacy of treatment,
and conservative therapy using glu-
cocorticoids. The author offers com-
pelling reasons to prevent rather than
treat this infection in cats and dis-
cusses the role of both ivermectin
and selamectin.
CRITIQUE. The educational strength
of this web site clearly outweighs any
negative aspects. Although most of
the illustrations and maps are of
good quality, the quality of some
charts, including the D. immitis life
cycle, is disappointing. In addition,
when printing an image from the
screen, all of the artifacts viewed in
the on-screen image become en-
larged and enhanced. Some of the ra-
diographic and photomicroscopic
images are particularly small. The
occasional use of video in Part 3 to
illustrate echocardiograms is, howev-
er, especially well done and signifi-
cantly enhances the educational val-
ue of the site.
Although the definitions of pertinent
terms are generally of value to most
practitioners, several of the defini-
tions given are superficial. For exam-
ple, type II alveolar cell hypertrophy
is defined as “a large cell in the
airspace that makes surfactant” with-
out stipulation as to whether hyper-
Compendium September 2000
trophy has detrimental clinical consequences to cats infect-
ed with D. immitis. Occasional misspelled words can be
found, although they do not significantly detract from the
presentation. In Part 2, the glossary-linked term hem-
globinurea (sic) actually defines hemoglobinuria.
Finally, the web site does not indicate the currency of
the information being presented and when the most recent
update was completed.
Small Animal/Exotics
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard B. Ford, DVM, MS, is professor of medicine,
Department of Clinical Sciences, School of Veterinary
Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh.
He is a Diplomate of the American College of Veteri-
nary Internal Medicine and has an interest in promot-
ing the Internet to enhance the practice of veterinary
medicine.