Coccidioidomycosis in Biopsies with Presumptive Diagnosis of Malignancy in Dogs: Report of Three Cases and Comparative Discussion of Published Reports

The Author(s) 2015. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract Coccidioidomycosis is a respiratory fun-gal infection with occasional systemic dissemination. The disseminated coccidioidomycosis is considered a multifaceted disease. In medicine, disseminated coc-cidioidomycosis is included within a group of infec-tious diseases that have been referred as the great imitators. In many cases, malignancies are included in the presumptive diagnosis. In veterinary medicine, disseminated coccidioidomycosis is common in dogs. Nonetheless, despite of being a diagnostic dilemma, disseminated coccidioidomycosis is underestimated and frequently not included into differentials, even in endemic zones. Herein, we describe three cases of granulomatous inflammation caused by Coccidioides spp. which were masquerading malignancies in dogs (0.39 %). The presumptive diagnoses in these cases were osteosarcoma, lymphoma and neurofibroma, respectively. A PCR assay employing tissues in paraffin blocks resulted positive for C. posadasii in one of these cases. A comparative discussion on the ambiguous clinic-pathological presentation of dissem-inated coccidioidomycosis in dogs and humans is included