Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How body position, exercise, and sedation affect lung pressure
By Rhinehart, J D et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary internal medicine·2017·Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Effect of Body Position, Exercise, and Sedation on Estimation of Pulmonary Artery Pressure in Dogs with Degenerative Atrioventricular Valve Disease.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 38 dogs with heart problems related to degenerative atrioventricular valve disease were studied to see how different factors like body position, exercise, and sedation affected their pulmonary artery pressure. The researchers found that sedation significantly increased the flow of blood through the heart in many of the dogs, which could change how veterinarians assess the severity of their pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure in the lungs). This means that how a dog is positioned or whether they are sedated can influence the results of heart tests, which is important for determining treatment and prognosis.
People also search for: dog heart problems treatment · pulmonary hypertension in dogs · effects of sedation on dog heart tests
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Severity of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in dogs is related to clinical signs and prognosis. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: We hypothesized that Doppler echocardiographic (DE) indices of pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) and pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) are influenced by independent factors that create clinically important variability of DE-based estimates of PH in dogs. ANIMALS: Thirty-eight client owned dogs with naturally acquired degenerative atrioventricular valve disease and tricuspid regurgitation (TR). METHODS: Dogs were prospectively enrolled, and target variables were acquired during 4 echocardiographic study periods (lateral recumbency, standing, lateral recumbency after a 6-minute walk test [6MWT], and lateral recumbency after sedation with butorphanol 0.25 mg/kg IM). Statistical methods included repeated measures ANOVA, mixed model analysis, and Chi-squared test of association. RESULTS: There was a significant increase in peak TR flow velocity (TRFV; P < 0.01) after sedation in 78% of dogs, with TRFV increasing by >0.4 m/s in 42% of dogs, independent of stroke volume. A significant effect of study period on DE-estimated PVR was not found (P = 0.15). There were negligible effects of sonographer, body position, and 6MWT on echocardiographic variables of PH. Clinically relevant cyclic variation of TRFV was found. There was an association between estimation of right atrial pressure based on subjective assessment and estimation based on cranial vena cava collapsibility (P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: The increase in TRFV observed with sedation could change assessment of PH severity and impact prognostication and interpretation of treatment response. Further studies with invasive validation are needed.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28865107/