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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - What is the Difference AIHA/AMHA
| I know you are all very busy and that this is a terrible forum to be on, but not now but when someone has some extra time could you briefly explain the difference between AIHAand AMHA? I try so hard to get this info from the sites. ALso, my vet has on autopy DIC autoimmune. I know it doesn't matter because they are all similar but now I havae to figure out this DIC. THank you. |
| Becky Illinois |
| DIC stands for Disseminated intravascular coagulation Here are some helpful articles: http://www.addl.purdue.edu/newsletters/2005/Winter/DIC.htm http://www.vin.com/proceedings/Proceedings.plx?PID=2596&CID=WSAVA2002 |
| Joanne MN |
| I, as well as most laypersons and vets, use the terms AIHA and IMHA interchangably. One needs to seek a bit for the difference and it is (I beleive) that IMHA can occur as either a primary or secondary disease. When the disease is the primary disease it is called autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA. But then since we many times don't know if it is primary or secondary the terms are used interchangeably. IMHA does seem to be the updated term for the disease. Some sources now just call it hemolytic anemia but that is not right in my opinion since we have things such as zinc induced hemolytic anemia which does have a known source. |
| Joanne mn |
| In short, autoimmune is considered a primary form of the disease. The body attacks the blood cells as "not self." Immume mediated is considered the secondary form of the disease. The trigger for this is exposure to something that causes the body to develop antibodies to the antigen of the foreign "not self" substance. A tick disease is a good example of this. The disease inserts itself into the blood cell and is carried around. The body attacks the red blood cell carrying the disease and destroys it. The problem is that it begins to attack other red blood cells in it's mistaken quest to destroy the tick disease as well. These terms are being used interchangeably but probably not correctly. Anemia is a symptom of a disease, not the disease itself. Diagnosing the underlying disease and resolving that is the goal of treatment. It gets tricky when the body suddenly begins to attack itself. A good example is rheumatoid arthritis in humans. It is a devastating disease that attacks and destroys joints very quickly. Researchers have tried to understand why this happens and how to stop it. Some researchers have theorized that a virus may actually be the responsible element. But it is still considered an *auto*immune disease currently. If a virus were to be identified, it might be classified as an *immune* mediated disease. patrice |
| Patrice n |
This thread was discussed on 28/03/2008
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