%0 Journal Article
%T Skin reactions to thimerosal and Leishmania in dogs from a leishmaniasis endemic area: it is better to keep them apart
%A Paranhos-Silva Moacir
%A Pontes-de-Carvalho Lain C
%A Oliveira Geraldo G de S¨¢
%A Nascimento Eliane G¨®es
%J Mem¨®rias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
%D 2001
%I Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Minist¨¦rio da Sa¨²de
%X Positive Montenegro's skin test is a delayed type hypersensitivity reaction widely used as indicative of previous infection with Leishmania in both humans and dogs. Montenegro's antigen consists of a crude Leishmania antigen solution, usually containing thimerosal as preserving agent. In this work it is shown that a large proportion of dogs (11 out of 56) examined in an endemic area of leishmaniasis presented induration at the site of injection of a diluent containing thimerosal alone. This clearly demonstrates that thimerosal leads to a high number of false positive skin reactions in dogs and that its use in Montenegro's skin test antigenic preparations should be avoided.
%K Montenegro's skin test
%K Leishmania
%K delayed type hypersensitivity
%K thimerosal
%K canine visceral leishmaniasis
%U http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0074-02762001000500017