Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Left atrial function in dogs with mitral valve disease using
By Caivano, D et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary cardiology : the official journal of the European Society of Veterinary Cardiology·2018·Department of Veterinary Medicine, Italy·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Left atrial deformation and phasic function determined by two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography in dogs with myxomatous mitral valve disease.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 96 dogs with myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) were studied to see how well their left atrial function could be measured using a special ultrasound technique. The results showed that dogs with congestive heart failure (CHF) had significantly lower heart function measurements compared to those without symptoms. This means that certain measurements could help veterinarians better understand the severity of heart disease in dogs and guide treatment decisions. However, more research is needed to confirm these findings and their usefulness in practice.
People also search for: dog heart disease symptoms · myxomatous mitral valve disease treatment · congestive heart failure in dogs
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Left atrial (LA) function can provide useful information in dogs with myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD). Recently, we have demonstrated the feasibility of measuring LA longitudinal deformation using speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) to estimate LA function in healthy dogs. Whether LA strain and strain rate variables provide additional information about LA function and clinical cardiac status in dogs with MMVD remains unexplored. ANIMALS: Ninety-six client-owned dogs of different breeds with MMVD were prospectively enrolled. METHODS: LA longitudinal deformation was evaluated in each dog by STE and different STE variables were used to assess LA function. RESULTS: No STE variables differed between American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Stage B1 and B2 dogs but were lower in Stage C dogs. Peak atrial longitudinal average strain < 27.9%, left-atrial-to-aortic ratio > 2.2 and peak atrial contraction average strain < 7.25% discriminated symptomatic MMVD dogs by receiver operating characteristic analysis with sensitivity and specificity of 100% and 100% (95% confidence interval [CI] 91-100%), 92% (95% CI 78-98%) and 98% (95% CI 87-100%), 100% (95% CI 91-100%) and 95% (95% CI 83-99%), respectively. In 12 dogs with similar left-atrial-to-aortic ratio, peak atrial longitudinal average strain and peak atrial contraction average strain differentiated dogs with subclinical disease from those with congestive heart failure (CHF). CONCLUSION: Dogs with MMVD in CHF appear to have lower LA longitudinal strain and strain rate variables compared with dogs with subclinical disease. Further studies are needed to establish if our initial findings can provide useful information for the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of dogs with MMVD.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29459124/