TABLE 3.

Selected microbiological, serologic, and PCR-DNA sequencing results from 12 dogs with cardiac abnormalities and evidence of alpha-proteobacterial infection

Dog no.	Blood culture resultsa		Reciprocal antibody titer				PCR sequencing results
	Conventional	Lysis centrifugation	B. vinsonii	E. canis	Babesia canis	R. rickettsii	Tissue	Organism
1	−	NDb	128	40	20	<16	Blood	B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii
2	−	ND	128	Negf	20	<16	Blood, valve	B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii
3	ND	ND	512	Neg	40 (160)c	<16	Blood	B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii
4	−	−	4,096	2,560	40	32	Blood, valve	α-Proteobacterium
5	−	−	8,192	80	40	64	Blood	α-Proteobacterium
6	−	+	8,192/512g	Neg	20	128	Blood	α-Proteobacterium
7	−	−	8,192	320	40	64	Blood, valve	α-Proteobacterium
8	+	ND	128	Neg	20	<16	Valve	α-Proteobacterium
9	−	ND	128	Neg	20d/2,560g	<16	Prepucial masse	α-Proteobacterium
10	ND	ND	ND	ND	ND	ND	Valve, myocardium	α-Proteobacterium
11	+	ND	8,192	Neg	40	128	Blood
12	−	−	128	20	20	<16	Blood

^a−, negative, +, positive. In dogs 8 and 11, β-lactamase-positive Staphylococcus intermedius (three of three cutures) and Alcaligenes xylosoxidans (one of two cultures) were respectively isolated by conventional blood culture techniques, and an uncharacterized bacterium from which DNA was not amplified using primers described in Materials and Methods was isolated from dog 6 by lysis centrifugation blood culture. 

^bND, not done. 

^cTiter in parenthesis represents seroreactivity to Babesia gibsonii antigens. 

^dBabesia canis organisms observed on blood smear. 

^eFour months prior to presentation for babesiosis and bartonellosis, a preputial mass was resected surgically. DNA was extracted from the mass, which was histologically compatible with a schwannoma but contained marked perivascular accumulations of lymphocytes and plasma cells. 

^fNeg, negative. 

^gAcute titer/convalescent titer.