Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Left atrial stiffness on echo predicts survival in dogs with mitral
By Osuga, T et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary cardiology : the official journal of the European Society of Veterinary Cardiology·2023·Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Japan·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Prognostic value of left atrial stiffness estimated using echocardiography in dogs with myxomatous mitral valve disease.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs with myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) underwent echocardiography to measure left atrial stiffness (LASt) and assess their heart health. The study found that dogs with higher LASt levels had a significantly shorter survival time compared to those with lower levels. Specifically, dogs with LASt above a certain threshold had a median survival of about 484 days, while those below it lived for over 1,112 days. This suggests that LASt can be a valuable tool for veterinarians to predict the risk of heart-related death in dogs with MMVD.
People also search for: dog heart disease prognosis · myxomatous mitral valve disease in dogs · echocardiogram results for dogs · left atrial stiffness in dogs
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: No studies have investigated the prognostic value of left atrial stiffness (LASt) estimated using echocardiography in dogs with myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD). ANIMALS: Seventy-two dogs had MMVD and 46 dogs were healthy dogs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Clinical retrospective cohort study. The survival information of MMVD dogs that underwent echocardiographic examination was obtained. The peak velocities of early diastolic transmitral flow (E) and mitral annular motion as determined by pulsed wave Doppler (E') were determined. The left atrial reservoir strain (ε) was determined by two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography of the left atrium. The LASt was estimated by the formula: E/E'/ε. The 95% prediction interval of LASt was computed from the data of the healthy dogs. RESULTS: Seventeen dogs having MMVD died of cardiac-related causes with 55 MMVD dogs censored. The MMVD dogs with LASt > its 95% upper prediction limit (LASt > 0.56; n = 26; median survival time, 484 days; 95% confidence interval, 283 days-indeterminable) had shorter survival times (P<0.001) than those with LASt ≤ its 95% upper prediction limit (LASt ≤ 0.56; n = 46; median survival time, >1112 days; 95% confidence interval, indeterminable). Multivariable Cox's proportional hazard analysis demonstrated that the ratio of the left atrial dimension to the aortic annulus dimension and LASt were independent predictors of cardiac-related death among conventional echocardiographic indices, εand LASt in MMVD dogs. CONCLUSIONS: In dogs with MMVD, increased LASt estimated using echocardiography is an independent predictor of cardiac-related death, and LASt can be more useful for prognostication than ε.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36608614/