Infectious canine hepatitis: animal model for viral-induced disseminated intravascular coagulation.

The objective of this study was to characterize the hemostatic defect in dogs with infectious canine hepatitis (ICH), a naturally occurring viral disease of dogs. Five littermate dogs were inoculated with 10(3) TCID50 of ICH virus intravenously. Two littermates were controls. The clinicopathologic manifestations of ICH were fever, depression, anorexia, hematemesis, melena, widespread mucocutaneous petechiae, prolonged bleeding from venipunctures, faceial edema, leukopenia, and proteinuria. The hemostatic defect of ICH was characterized by thrombocytopenia, abnormal platelet function, prolonged one-stage prothrombin time and activated partial thromboplastin time, normal thrombin times, depressed factor VIII activity, and increased fibrin-fibrinogen degradation products. These findings suggested that the central pathologic mechanism of the abnormal hemostasis in ICH was disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). ICH is an example of DIC induced by viral infection. This disease is a suitable model for investigation of the detection, pathogenesis, and therapy of DIC.