Veterinary Practitioner Vol. 15 No. 2
December 2014
CLINICO-PHYSIOLOGICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF CARDIOVASCULAR ABNORMALITIES IN CANINES A. Kumar1, S. Dey2, S. Mahajan3* and A. Dan4 Comparative System of Medicine Laboratory, Division of Veterinary Medicine Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar-243122, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India ABSTRACT The present study was conducted on client owned clinical cases of dogs reported during year (2010-12) at the Referral Veterinary Polyclinic, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar. A total of 82 dogs suffering from various cardiovascular abnormalities along with 6 apparently healthy dogs were selected. The detailed clinical sign and blood pressure (SBP, DBP, and MAP) were recorded by non-invasive method. Key words: Cardiovascular, canines, clinical and physiological signs
Introduction A number of diseases which could lead to cardiovascular abnormality are prevalent in canines. The cardiovascular diseases may be acquired or congenital (Brombilla et al., 2003). The most common acquired cardiac diseases are cardiomyopathy (mainly dilated and to some extent hypertrophic) and various types of arrhythmias (Detweiler and Patterson, 1965). Cardiac diseases are often complicated by the presence of cardiac arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia (Tarducci et al., 2003). However, occult cardiac diseases which are not having clear symptoms are also being diagnosed which in later stages could result in clinical diseases leading to morbidity (Pang et al., 2005). In India where literature regarding cardiac diseases is scarcely available, the studies on clinical parameters can proved to be useful in clinical diagnosis and decision making by clinician. Keeping in view the paucity of information related to clinical and physiological parameters in various cardiovascular abnormalities, the present study was undertaken to record clinic-physiological alterations in dogs suffering from cardiovascular abnormalities. Materials and Methods The present study was conducted on client owned clinical cases of dogs reported during year (2010-12) at the Referral Veterinary Polyclinic, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, India after approval of Institute Ethics Committee. A total of 82 dogs suffering from various cardiovascular abnormalities including 6 apparently healthy dogs maintained at Division of Animal Nutrition were selected as healthy control for the study. The symptoms like exercise intolerance, cold extremities, dyspnoea, tachypnoea, ascites, jugular distension and pulsation, epistaxsis, cyanosis and coughing along with heart rate and respiration rate were recorded. Blood pressure (B.P) was recorded by non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP) instrument (SurgiVet,) using pediatric cuff from radial artery.
Results and Discussion The clinical signs exhibited by dogs with various cardiovascular abnormalities were exercise intolerance-32/ 82 (39.02%), coughing-11/82 (13.41%), dyspnoea-10/82 (12.19%), syncope- 04/82 (04.87%), weakness/lethargy/ drowsiness -16/82 (19.51), pedel oedema -05/82 (06.09%), cyanosis of tongue- 03/82 (3.65%), emaciation -12/82 (14.63%), overweight 10/82 (12.19%) and ascites- 14/82 (17.07%). Wright et al. (1996) reported that animals presenting with cardiac diseases may have a history of syncope/lethargy (due to reduced cerebral perfusion), Weakness or reduced stamina (due to reduced skeletal muscle perfusion), dyspnoea/wheeze/nocturnal cough/orthopnoea (due to pulmonary oedema or pleural effusion associated with raised filling pressures resulting in congestive heart failure), abdominal distension (due to ascites, hepatomegaly or splenomegaly), pallor/cold extremities and prolonged capillary refill time (due to inadequate blood supply to the tissues and the body compensates by peripheral vasoconstriction so that blood can be supplied to vital organs of the body), exercise intolerance (due to inadequate blood supply to the tissues) and cardiac cachexia (severe wasting that occurs in association with chronic congestive heart failure as a result of poor tissue perfusion, cellular hypoxia, malabsorption, and anorexia). Sarita (2008) has reported that most of the clinical cases of cardiac diseases were presented with a history of nocturnal coughing (2.55%), exercise intolerance (1.82%), partial or complete loss of appetite (1.82%), swelling in abdominal area (1.45%), dullness and depression (0.72%), cachexia and hepatojugular pulsation (0.36%) at times. On auscultation, murmurs were noticed in 19 dogs in the present study. All cardiac diseases at some stage may present themselves as disorders of the heart rhythm; likewise, they may ultimately terminate in chronic heart failure and death (Singh, 2002). Vonderhaar (2002) reported that murmurs are prolonged, audible vibrations and their presence frequently
#1 Part of Ph.D. Thesis of first author present address: Scientist, Animal Health, National Reaserch Center on Mithun, Jharnapani, Medziphema, Nagaland; 2Principal Scientist, Division of Medicine, IVRI, Izatanagar, Bareilly (UP), India; 3*Corresponding author, Ph.D Scholar, Division of Medicine, IVRI, Izatanagar, Bareilly (U.P.), India, Email:
[email protected]; 4 Research Associate, Comparative System of Medicine Laboratory, Division of Medicine, IVRI, Izatnagar, Bareilly (U.P.), India
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indicates heart disease. In the present study, the heart rate in dogs with cardiovascular abnormalities were found statistically nonsignificant with healthy (107.72± 4.24 and 118.33±4.69 bpm) dogs, respectively. The physiological limits of heart rate are not equivocal in dogs. The heart rate in dogs ranged between 60-160 bpm (Bohn, 1989), 70-160 bpm (Allen et al., 1994), 70180 bpm (Schmidt and Kurzbein, 1995). Similarly the systolic blood pressure (SBP) of diseased dogs did not differ significantly with healthy (131.16± 3.83 and 133.33±2.71 mm Hg), respectively. Whereas diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (89.27±5.33 and 76.00±2.17 mm Hg), and mean arterial pressure (MAP) (108.55±4.56 and 90.66±4.15 mmHg) was found significantly (P
