The effect of diminazene aceturate on cholinesterase activity in dogs with canine babesiosis.

A clinical trial was designed to evaluate the effects of diminazene aceturate and its stabiliser antipyrine on serum pseudocholinesterase (PChE) and red blood cell acetylcholinesterase (RBC AChE) in dogs with babesiosis. The trial was conducted on naturally occurring, uncomplicated cases of babesiosis (n = 20) that were randomly allocated to groups receiving a standard therapeutic dose of diminazene aceturate with antipyrine stabiliser (n = 10) or antipyrine alone (n = 10). Blood was drawn immediately before and every 15 minutes for 1 hour after treatment. Plasma PChE showed a 4% decrease between 0 and 60 min within the treatment group (p < 0.05). No statistically significant differences were found between the treatment and control groups at any of the time intervals for PChE. There was an increase in RBC AChE activity at 15 min in the treatment group (p < 0.05). No significant differences were found between the treatment and control groups at any time interval for RBC AChE. In view of the difference in PChE, samples from additional, new cases (n = 10) of canine babesiosis were collected to identify the affect of the drug over 12 hours. No significant depression was identified over this time interval. The results suggests that the underlying mechanism in producing side-effects, when they do occur, is unlikely to be through cholinesterase depression.