Criptococose cutânea, pulmonar e cerebral em pequenos animais.

Abstract

Cutaneous, pulmonary and cerebral cryptococcosis in small animals. Describe three cases of cryptococcosis, two in cats and one dog in, diagnosed at the Laboratory of Animal Pathology (LPA) of the Veterinary Hospital (HV) of the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), from January 2003 to December, 2013. In the first case nasal involvement was observed, characterizing the clinical form most commonly diagnosed in cats, known as "clown nose". In the second case, in addition to skin involvement, the cat also had lesions in retropharyngeal lymph nodes and lungs. The dog had pulmonary and cerebral involvement. Grossly, the skin lesions were similar and were characterized by ulcerated and whitish areas with serosanguineous secretion. Lungs had elevated reddened areas in the pleural surface that deepened the cut. In the brain of the dog had thickening of the meninges by gelatinous translucent material and formation of cavitation, the material was observed compressing the adjacent nervous tissue. Microscopic findings were granulomatous inflammation in the affected tissues, associated with yeast fungal structures stained by HE Alcinoos blue, PAS and Grocott silver, characteristics of Cryptococcus spp. The definitive diagnosis of cryptococcosis was based on epidemiological, clinical and pathological characteristics data, in which the microorganisms were demonstrated and identified by characteristic morphology of the agent, through histochemical techniques. With this study we could show that cryptococcosis is a sporadic disease in cats and dogs, most often fatal, diagnosed in LPA/HV/UFCG in Paraiba semiarid, characterized by localized or disseminated skin infection affecting mainly regional lymph nodes, lungs and brain. We include it in the differential of other mycoses, skin, lung and brain diseases of dogs and cats diagnostic region.