Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Heart murmur and parachute mitral valve in a young cat
By Nijveldt, E et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary cardiology : the official journal of the European Society of Veterinary Cardiology·2025·Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Cardiovascular images: parachute mitral valve in a cat.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A six-month-old female domestic shorthair cat was taken to the vet because of a heart murmur. Tests showed she had a serious heart defect called a ventricular septal defect, which was causing her heart to work too hard and leading to heart failure symptoms. After a month, she underwent a procedure to help manage the defect. Follow-up exams revealed she also had a rare heart valve issue known as parachute mitral valve, which can complicate her condition.
People also search for: cat heart murmur · domestic shorthair heart defect · parachute mitral valve treatment · cat heart failure symptoms · ventricular septal defect in cats
Abstract
A six-month-old intact female domestic shorthair cat was presented to the Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center for further evaluation of a heart murmur. On echocardiography, a large, left-to-right shunting ventricular septal defect was identified. There was evidence of severe left heart volume overload, increased pulmonary artery flow and tricuspid regurgitation velocities, mild mitral regurgitation, and left-sided congestive heart failure. The presence of relative pulmonary stenosis, pulmonary hypertension, and a mitral valve malformation were suspected, but further echocardiographic characterization was not attempted at the time due to the fractious nature of the cat. The cat presented a month later for pulmonary artery banding as palliative treatment for the ventricular septal defect. On subsequent recheck echocardiograms, four weeks and three months later, the presence of mitral valve dysplasia with a parachute mitral valve was observed.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40815916/