Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Diet effects on heart thickness and markers in cats with early heart
By van Hoek, Ingrid et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary internal medicine·2020·Royal Canin SAS, France·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Association of diet with left ventricular wall thickness, troponin I and IGF-1 in cats with subclinical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of 44 cats with subclinical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (sHCM), a heart condition that can lead to serious issues, were studied to see if a special diet could help. These cats were given either a diet with less starch and added omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) or a regular diet for 12 months. The cats on the special diet showed significant improvements in heart measurements and lower levels of certain heart-related proteins compared to those on the regular diet. This suggests that a tailored diet may help manage heart health in cats with sHCM.
People also search for: cat heart disease diet · hypertrophic cardiomyopathy treatment in cats · omega-3 for cats with heart problems
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Cats with subclinical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (sHCM) have elevated serum insulin and serum amyloid A concentrations correlating with the degree of cardiac hypertrophy. Diet might affect these and other cardiac variables. OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the effect of a complete, balanced diet with restricted starch and supplemented with eicosapentaenoic acid + docosahexaenoic acid (EPA + DHA) on echocardiographic variables and cardiac biomarkers in cats with sHCM. ANIMALS: Forty-four client-owned cats with sHCM. METHODS: A prospective, randomized, double-blind, multicenter study enrolled cats with end-diastole interventricular septum thickness (IVSd) or left ventricular wall thickness (LVWd) ≥6 mm, or both. Nonsedated, fasted cats were examined at baseline and after 6 and 12 months of Test (restricted starch and EPA + DHA supplements) (n = 23) or Control (unrestricted starch without EPA + DHA supplementation) (n = 21) diet. Assessments included auscultation, body weight, body condition score, echocardiography and blood analysis. Linear and generalized mixed models analyzed diet, time and diet * time interactions (5% significance level). RESULTS: No differences between diet groups were significant for any variable at any timepoint. There were significant decreases in the Test but not Control group in maximum IVSd (P = .03), maximum LVWd (P = .02) and insulin-like growth factor-1 levels (P = .04) after 12 months, and in ultrasensitive cardiac troponin I (cTnI) (P = .001) after 6 months; effect sizes (95% confidence interval) were 0.53 (0.09; 0.99), 0.63 (0.18; 1.09), 0.61 (0.16; 1.07), and 0.37 (-0.06; 0.8), respectively. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Cats with sHCM fed Test diet had significant decreases in echocardiographic variables of sHCM and in cTnI and IGF-1.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33118674/