Table 2.

Perisplenits and red pulp changes in dogs from an endemic area of L. chagasi infection, with different patterns of response to the infection

	Animal groups
	Infected
Parameters	Potentially resistant to VL (%)	Potentially susceptible to VL (%)	Undefined susceptibility status (%)	Noninfected (%)	Total (%)
Number of animals	22	25	11	14	72
Perisplenitis	2 (10)a	18 (72)b	0 (0)	0 (0)a	20 (28)
Red Pulp:
Granuloma	0 (0)	7 (28)c	1 (9)	0 (0)	8 (11)
Plasma cells:
Absent–few	5 (23)	1 (4)	2 (18)	6 (43) d	14 (19)
Average–frequent	17 (77)	24 (96)	9 (82)	8 (57)	58 (81)
Macrophage:
Absent–few	13 (59)	15 (60)	0 (0)	4 (29)	32 (44)
Average–frequent	9 (41)	10 (40)	11 (100)	10 (71)	40 (55)
Lymphoblasts:
Absent-few	19 (86)	17 (68)	9 (82)	9 (64)	54 (75)
Average-frequent	3 (14)	8 (32)	2 (18)	5 (36)	18 (25)
Megakaryocyte:
Absent-few	14 (64)	19 (76)	8 (72)	12 (86)	53 (74)
Average-frequent	8 (36)	6 (24)	3 (27)	2 (14)	19 (26)
Leishmania amastigotes:	0 (0)	10 (40)e	0 (0)	0 (0)	10 (14)
Positive histology:
Sub-capsular	0 (0)g	10 (40)e	0 (0)	0 (0)	10 (14)
Red pulp	0 (0)	10 (40)e	0 (0)	0 (0)	10 (14)
Parasite density:
Sub-capsular	0	45 ± 40f,g	0	0
Internal red pulp	0	37 ± 44	0	0

^aCapsular tissue was absent or poorly represented in one animal. ^b–f Statistically significant differences (χ²-test with Yates’ correction):

^aP = 0.02;

^bdifferent from the other groups, P < 0.0001;

^cdifferent from the other groups, P = 0.0102;

^ddifferent from the other groups, P < 0·0366;

^edifferent from the other groups, P < 0.0001;

^fStatistically different from the parasite density in the internal red pulp (paired t-test, P = 0.0425).

^gExpressed as the mean of the relative (%) number of high power fields positive for amastigotes among 20–50 examined.