Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Heart enlargement and lung changes on X-rays in cats
By Young, Victoria et al.·Published in Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery·2022·Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA, United States·View original on Crossref →
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Original publication title: Association between feline hyperthyroidism and thoracic radiographic evaluation of cardiomegaly and pulmonary hyperinflation
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A 10-year-old domestic shorthair cat was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and showed signs of heart problems, which can happen in older cats with this condition. Researchers looked at chest X-rays of hyperthyroid cats compared to healthy cats to see if there was a link between hyperthyroidism and heart enlargement or lung issues. They found that hyperthyroid cats did have larger hearts on X-rays, but there was no evidence that hyperthyroidism caused lung problems. The study suggests that while hyperthyroid cats may have heart enlargement, it’s not clear how significant this is for their health.
People also search for: cat hyperthyroidism symptoms · enlarged heart in cats · cat lung problems X-ray
Abstract
Objectives Hyperthyroidism frequently affects middle-to-older-aged cats that can present with cardiorespiratory signs. The effects of hyperthyroidism on cardiac size and function have been previously documented. Anecdotally, pulmonary hyperinflation identified on thoracic radiographs may also be associated with hyperthyroidism; however, there is no literature to support this claim. The goal of this study was to determine any association between hyperthyroidism, pulmonary hyperinflation and cardiomegaly with the following hypotheses: (1) hyperthyroid cats would not have evidence of radiographic pulmonary hyperinflation compared with control cats; and (2) hyperthyroid cats were more likely to have evidence of radiographic cardiomegaly than control cats. Methods In this retrospective case-control study, the thoracic radiographs of 52 hyperthyroid cats and 46 non-hyperthyroid cats were evaluated for subjective and objective measurements of pulmonary hyperinflation and cardiomegaly. Results There were no statistically significant differences between hyperthyroid and non-hyperthyroid cats for any variable indicative of pulmonary hyperinflation. The mean ± SD vertebral heart score on lateral views for hyperthyroid cats was 7.75 ± 0.53 and for control cats was 7.55 ± 0.54, which was significantly different ( P = 0.05). Among all cats, a more severe total elevation in thyroxine (T4) was correlated with a larger vertebral heart score on lateral views (Spearman’s correlation coefficient = 0.23, P = 0.02). Conclusions and relevance While the results of this study suggest that hyperthyroid cats are more likely to have a larger vertebral heart score on lateral views than control cats, the clinical relevance of this finding is unclear given the large degree of overlap between hyperthyroid and non-hyperthyroid cats. In addition, among all cats, a greater total T4 elevation was weakly correlated with a larger vertebral heart score. Hyperthyroidism is not associated with radiographic pulmonary hyperinflation and is an unlikely differential for this radiographic finding.
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Search related cases →Original publication on Crossref: https://doi.org/10.1177/1098612x221118190