Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Beta blockers and survival in dogs with severe heart narrowing
By Eason, B D et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary internal medicine·2014·College of Veterinary Medicine·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Influence of beta blockers on survival in dogs with severe subaortic stenosis.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 1-year-old dog diagnosed with severe subaortic stenosis (a heart defect) was treated with a beta blocker to see if it would help improve survival. The study looked at 50 dogs with this condition and found that the beta blocker did not make a difference in how long the dogs lived, regardless of their heart pressure levels. The only factors that seemed to affect survival were the age at diagnosis and the pressure gradient in the heart. Unfortunately, dogs with higher pressure levels had a greater risk of death.
People also search for: dog heart problems treatment · subaortic stenosis in dogs · beta blockers for dogs heart disease
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Subaortic stenosis (SAS) is one of the most common congenital cardiac defects in dogs. Severe SAS frequently is treated with a beta adrenergic receptor blocker (beta blocker), but this approach largely is empirical. OBJECTIVE: To determine the influence of beta blocker treatment on survival time in dogs with severe SAS. METHODS: Retrospective review of medical records of dogs diagnosed with severe, uncomplicated SAS (pressure gradient [PG] ≥80 mmHg) between 1999 and 2011. RESULTS: Fifty dogs met the inclusion criteria. Twenty-seven dogs were treated with a beta blocker and 23 received no treatment. Median age at diagnosis was significantly greater in the untreated group (1.2 versus 0.6 years, respectively; P = .03). Median PG at diagnosis did not differ between the treated and untreated groups (127 versus 121 mmHg, respectively; P = .2). Cox proportional hazards regression was used to identify the influence of PG at diagnosis, age at diagnosis, and beta blocker treatment on survival. In the all-cause multivariate mortality analysis, only age at diagnosis (P = .02) and PG at diagnosis (P = .03) affected survival time. In the cardiac mortality analysis, only PG influenced survival time (P = .03). Treatment with a beta blocker did not influence survival time in either the all-cause (P = .93) or cardiac-cause (P = .97) mortality analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Beta blocker treatment did not influence survival in dogs with severe SAS in our study, and a higher PG at diagnosis was associated with increased risk of death.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24597738/