title: Prospective hematologic and clinicopathologic study of asymptomatic cats with naturally acquired feline immunodeficiency virus infection.
abstract: Prospective studies were performed over a 28- to 77-month period (median, 66 months) on 5 cats with naturally acquired feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infection in an attempt to correlate hematologic and clinicopathologic changes with the emergence of clinical disease. On presentation, all cats were asymptomatic; free of opportunistic infections; and had normal complete blood counts, bone marrow morphologies, marrow progenitor frequencies, and progenitor in vitro growth characteristics. During study, 2 cats remained healthy, 2 cats showed mild clinical signs, and 1 cat developed a malignant neoplasm (ie, bronchiolar-alveolar adenocarcinoma). Although persistent hematologic abnormalities were not observed, intermittent peripheral leukopenias were common. In 3 of 5 FIV-seropositive cats, lymphopenia (< 1,500 lymphs/microL; normal reference range, 1,500 to 7,000 lymphs/microL) was a frequent finding and the absolute lymphocyte counts had a tendency to progressively decline. One of the other 2 cats had consistently low to low-normal absolute neutrophil counts (1,300 to 4,800 segs/microL; mean, 2,730 segs/microL; normal reference range, 2,500 to 12,500 segs/microL), and the remaining cat had consistently normal leukograms, except for a transient period (ie, 11 months) of benign lymphocytosis (7,200 to 13,430 lymphs/microL) early in the study. Periodic examinations of bone marrow aspirates revealed normal to slightly depressed myeloid-to-erythroid ratios with normal cellular morphology and maturation. Bone marrow abnormalities observed late in the study included mild dysmorphic changes (ie, megaloblastic features) in 2 cats, and a significant decrease (60% of controls, P < .001) in the frequencies of burst-forming units erythroid (BFU-E) in marrow cultures of FIV-seropositive cats compared with uninfected control cats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Feline Retrovirus Clinic, Pacific Northwest Research Foundation, Seattle, WA 98122, USA.
authors.forename: G H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Shelton
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Linenberger
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Persik
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Abkowitz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology; D002415:Cats; D046508:Culture Techniques; D016181:Feline Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D016089:Immunodeficiency Virus, Feline / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies