Get access to all handy features included in the IVIS website
- Get unlimited access to books, proceedings and journals.
- Get access to a global catalogue of meetings, on-site and online courses, webinars and educational videos.
- Bookmark your favorite articles in My Library for future reading.
- Save future meetings and courses in My Calendar and My e-Learning.
- Ask authors questions and read what others have to say.
Royal Canin student award finalist
Marinus S.
Get access to all handy features included in the IVIS website
- Get unlimited access to books, proceedings and journals.
- Get access to a global catalogue of meetings, on-site and online courses, webinars and educational videos.
- Bookmark your favorite articles in My Library for future reading.
- Save future meetings and courses in My Calendar and My e-Learning.
- Ask authors questions and read what others have to say.
Read
Background
Differentiating innocent cardiac murmurs from murmurs caused by congenital cardiac anomalies can be challenging with auscultation alone in asymptomatic puppies.
Hypothesis
Plasma N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) concentrations and phonocardiograms recorded by an electronic stethoscope can differentiate innocent cardiac murmurs from pathological ones.
Animals
186 client-owned asymptomatic dogs: 135 cairn terriers (age: 45-124 days), 20 adult cairn terriers (age: 7.5 months to 13.5 years) and 31 puppies of various breeds (age: 29-396 days).
Methods
Each dog was auscultated and when a cardiac murmur was heard, a phonocardiogram was recorded and an echocardiogram was performed. Plasma NT-proBNP concentrations were measured by a single laboratory using an ELISA assay.
Results
No significant difference in plasma NT-proBNP levels was found between puppies without a murmur and puppies with an innocent murmur, and between clinically healthy adult cairn terriers and cairn terrier puppies. Plasma NT-proBNP levels in puppies with a congenital heart disease were significantly higher than those in puppies with innocent murmurs. However, puppies with severe pulmonic stenosis did not have elevated plasma NT-proBNP levels. Phonocardiographic characteristics of innocent cardiac murmurs are significantly different from those of pathologic murmurs. Innocent murmurs are shorter than 80% of the systole and have a lower amplitude compared related to the first cardiac sound.
Conclusions and clinical importance
Plasma NT-proBNP concentrations within the reference range do not rule out a congenital cardiac anomaly. Murmurs longer than 80% of the systole are most likely pathologic, whereas murmurs shorter than that could be either innocent or pathologic.
Keywords: auscultation, biomarker, dogs, echocardiography, functional murmurs
Get access to all handy features included in the IVIS website
- Get unlimited access to books, proceedings and journals.
- Get access to a global catalogue of meetings, on-site and online courses, webinars and educational videos.
- Bookmark your favorite articles in My Library for future reading.
- Save future meetings and courses in My Calendar and My e-Learning.
- Ask authors questions and read what others have to say.
Comments (0)
Ask the author
0 comments