Synonyms.html

Synonyms

D. immitis infects the heart in dogs and cats, causing heartworm disease. Therefore, in canines and felines, dirofilariasis infection is synonymous with heartworm.

Figure 1: Dirofilaria immitis adults in the right ventricle of a dog's heart (post-mortem).
Image from Ohio State University: http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~parasite/dirofilaria.html.

D. repens and D. tenuis have also been called D. conjunctiva and Loa extraocularis due to their propensity for infecting the conjunctiva or other locations near the eye (Gutierrez).

Figure 2: Adult female worm of D.repens species located under the bulbar conjunctiva
in the right eye of a 51-year-old farmer from the Po river valley (northwestern Italy).
Image from Atlas of Medical Parasitology: http://www.cdfound.to.it/html/dir2.htm.

D. ursiand D. subdermataare sometimes collectively referred to as D. ursi-like, due to the fact that the immature, necrotic worms of these two species are not easily differentiated when found in humans. They also have the same geographic distribution, namely the northern United States and Canada (Gutierrez).
D. striata and D. lutrae are sometimes collectively referred to as D. immitis-like because they are morphologically indistinguishable from D. immitis (Skidmore et al).

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