Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Predicting lung high blood pressure in West Highland terriers
By Schober, Karsten E & Baade, Hanno·Published in Journal of veterinary internal medicine·2006·Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Doppler echocardiographic prediction of pulmonary hypertension in West Highland white terriers with chronic pulmonary disease.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 45 West Highland White Terriers with chronic lung disease were studied to see if certain heart measurements could help predict pulmonary hypertension (PH), a condition where the blood pressure in the lungs is too high. The researchers found that specific measurements taken during echocardiograms, like right ventricular acceleration time, could indicate the presence of PH even when the typical signs were not visible. This could help veterinarians diagnose and manage PH in these dogs more effectively.
People also search for: West Highland White Terrier pulmonary hypertension symptoms · dog heart disease treatment · chronic lung disease in dogs
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is commonly diagnosed by Doppler echocardiography (DE) of tricuspid regurgitation (TR). However, TR may be absent or difficult to measure. HYPOTHESIS: Doppler-derived systolic time intervals of pulmonary artery (PA) flow may be used to predict PH in dogs. ANIMALS: Seventy-three healthy dogs and 45 West Highland white terriers (WHWT) with interstitial pulmonary disease (IPD). METHODS: Echocardiographic studies, including determination of right ventricular acceleration time (AT), ejection time (ET), and AT : ET ratio; right ventricular shortening fraction (RV-SF); and TR velocity, were performed. Pulmonary hypertension was defined by TR >3.1 m/s. RESULTS: In healthy WHWT, AT (median, range) was 73 ms (53 to 104) and AT : ET was 0.40 (0.28 to 0.55). AT : ET was minimally affected by age (R2 = 0.04, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.01-0.07, P < .001) but not by heart rate, body weight, or RV-SF. In all WHWT with TR, AT and AT : ET were inversely related to calculated systolic PA pressure (R2 = 0.52, 95% CI 0.42-0.62, P < .001 and R2 = 0.36, 95% CI 0.29-0.42, P = .001). Clinical cutoffs to predict systolic PH were defined for AT (58 ms; sensitivity [Se] 88% and specificity [Sp] 80%) and AT : ET (0.31; Se 73% and Sp 87%). CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: PH is common in WHWT with IPD. Analysis of right ventricular AT and AT : ET may be predictive of PH and should be particularly useful if TR is absent.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16955816/