Table 2.
Comparison of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) level and the proportions of dogs with altered ESR level in healthy dogs (i.e., control group), heartworm-infected dogs (i.e., Dirofilaria group), heartworm-infected L. infantum seropositive dogs affected by a non-active form of leishmaniosis (i.e., Dirofilaria/Leishmania non-active group), and heartworm-infected L. infantum seropositive dogs affected by an active form of leishmaniosis (i.e., Dirofilaria/Leishmania active group).
| Parameters* | Control group (n = 22) (a) |
Dirofilaria group (n = 18) (b) |
Dirofilaria/Leishmania non-active group (n = 21) (c) |
Dirofilaria/Leishmania active group (n = 8) (d) |
p^ | Comparisons† | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (b) vs. (a) | (c) vs. (a) | (d) vs. (a) | (c) vs. (b) | (d) vs. (b) | (d) vs. (c) | ||||||
| ESR | 7.5 (5–11) | 12.5 (12–16) | 11 (10–16) | 46 (27–62) | 0.0001 | 0.0002 | 0.004 | <0.0001 | 0.18 | 0.01 | 0.001 |
| ESR > 8.0 mm/h | 10 (45.4) | 16 (88.9) | 18 (85.7) | 8 (100.0) | 0.002 ѱ | 0.004 ¥ | 0.006 ¥ | 0.007 ¥ | 0.77¥ | 0.33¥ | 0.26¥ |
*As median and interquartile range (IQR) for continuous variables, and as frequency and percentage (%) for categorical variables. ^Kruskal–Wallis rank test; ѱFisher Exact test; †Dunn’s test; ¥Proportion test. The bold values indicate the statistically significant results.