Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How Doppler ultrasound finds heart failure in cats with thickened
By Rohrbaugh, Michelle N et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary internal medicine·2020·Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Detection of congestive heart failure by Doppler echocardiography in cats with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of 15 cats with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) were studied to see if certain heart tests could help detect congestive heart failure (CHF). The researchers found that specific measurements from echocardiograms, like the flow of blood in the heart and the size of the heart's chambers, could accurately indicate CHF. This means that vets can use these tests to identify heart failure in cats with HCM, which could help in deciding on treatment options. However, more research is needed to understand how these tests can guide treatment decisions effectively.
People also search for: cat heart failure symptoms · hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in cats · echocardiogram for cat heart problems
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Left-sided congestive heart failure (CHF) is characterized by increased filling pressures and related Doppler echocardiographic (DE) filling patterns. HYPOTHESIS: Doppler echocardiographic variables of left ventricular filling derived from transmitral flow, pulmonary vein flow, and tissue Doppler can be used to detect CHF in cats with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). ANIMALS: Forty-seven client-owned cats. METHODS: Prospective clinical cohort study. Cats underwent physical examination, thoracic radiography, analysis of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), and transthoracic echocardiography and were divided into 3 age-matched groups: Group 1 (apparently healthy control), Group 2 (preclinical HCM), and Group 3 (HCM and CHF). Measured and calculated variables included respiratory rate, DE estimates, serum NT-proBNP concentration, and radiographic CHF score. Groups were compared using ANOVA, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and multivariate analyses were used to identify diagnostic cutoffs for the detection of CHF. RESULTS: Fifteen cats were in Group 1, 17 in Group 2, and 15 in Group 3. The ROC analysis indicated that the ratio of peak velocity of early diastolic transmitral flow to peak velocity of late diastolic transmitral flow (area under the curve [AUC], 1.0; diagnostic cutoff, 1.77; P = .001), ratio of left atrial size to aortic annular dimension (AUC, 0.91; diagnostic cutoff, 1.96; P = .003), left atrial diameter (AUC, 0.89; cutoff, 18.5 mm; P = .004), diastolic functional class (AUC, 0.89; cutoff, class 2; P = .005), respiratory (AUC, 0.79; cutoff, 36 breaths per minute [brpm]; P = .02), and the ratio of the peak velocity of fused early and late transmitral flow velocities to the peak velocity of the fused early and late diastolic tissue Doppler waveforms (AUC, 0.74; cutoff, 15.1; P = .05) performed best for detecting CHF. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Various DE variables can be used to detect CHF in cats with HCM. Determination of the clinical benefit of such variables in initiating treatments and assessing treatment success needs further study.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32364632/