Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Hyperthyroidism linked to heart and lung changes on cat chest X-rays
By Young, Victoria et al.·Published in Journal of feline medicine and surgery·2022·Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed →
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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. When the vet took X-rays, they found that the cat's heart was larger than normal, but there was no evidence of lung issues like pulmonary hyperinflation. The study indicated that while hyperthyroid cats tend to have bigger hearts, this doesn't necessarily mean they have breathing problems. Treatment for hyperthyroidism can help manage the condition, but the link between hyperthyroidism and heart size needs more investigation.
People also search for: cat hyperthyroidism symptoms · cat heart problems X-ray · hyperthyroidism treatment for cats
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 ( = 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, = 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 PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36043487/