Question submitted during the Underlying Disease Screening in Dogs with IMHA webinar:
What is the epidemiology of IMHA in the US? Is there a geographical distribution of cases? Would you say the number of IMHA cases per year is on the rise and thoughts as to why this is the case?
This is an excellent question. The prevalence of IMHA and whether or not it is increasing has not been reported by geographic regions to my knowledge. Collecting this data would be feasible given that most veterinary schools and private hospitals have computerized medical records. There would be a need to be sure to standardize the diagnosis of IMHA (to be sure it was truly present in each dog reported) and a need for the hospitals to code their diagnoses on their master problem lists. This is an excellent idea for a study and an important question to answer, it could give us clues about its etiology if we clearly document prevalence based on geographic distribution, breed the presence of underlying disease and other trigger factors, and seasonality.
