Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs and diet effects on heart changes
By Freid, Kimberly J et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary internal medicine·2021·Department of Clinical Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Retrospective study of dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a serious heart condition, was studied to see how their diets affected their health. The research found that dogs on nontraditional diets who changed their food after diagnosis showed better heart function and lived longer compared to those who kept the same diet. Specifically, those who changed their diet had a median survival time of about 337 days, while those who didn’t change lived about 215 days. This suggests that changing the diet may help improve the condition in dogs with DCM, but more research is needed to fully understand the link between diet and heart health.
People also search for: dog dilated cardiomyopathy diet change · heart problems in dogs · improving dog heart health · nontraditional diet for dogs with DCM
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The United States Food and Drug Administration is investigating possible diet-associated dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs and cats. OBJECTIVES: To retrospectively review DCM cases for signalment, diet information, echocardiographic changes, and survival. ANIMALS: Client-owned dogs (n = 71). METHODS: Medical records of dogs diagnosed with DCM between January 1, 2014 and September 30, 2018 were reviewed. Dogs were grouped into "traditional" or "nontraditional" diet categories and whether or not diet was changed after diagnosis. RESULTS: For dogs eating nontraditional diets, those that had their diets changed had a larger percentage decrease in normalized systolic left ventricular internal dimension (P = .03) and left atrial:aorta ratio (P < .001) compared to those that did not have their diets changed. Survival time was significantly longer for dogs with DCM eating nontraditional diets that had their diets changed (median survival, 337 days; range, 9-1307 days) compared to dogs eating nontraditional diets that did not have their diets changed (median survival, 215 days; range, 1-852 days; P = .002). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Dogs with DCM eating nontraditional diets can experience improvement in cardiac function after diet change but additional research is needed to examine possible associations between diet and DCM.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33345431/