Update on dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs

作者：Wess Gerhard^*

来源：Kleintierpraxis, 2012, 57(2): 76-+.

• cardiology
• echocardiography
• Holter ECG
• genetic tests
• biomarkers

Update on dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs
Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is the most common cause of congestive heart failure (CHF) and sudden cardiac death in medium-sized and large breed dogs. In Europe, the most commonly affected breed is the Doberman Pinscher with a high prevalence of 58%. While DCM is transmitted as an autosomal-dominant trait in Doberman Pinschers and in Boxers, this is not the case in other breeds. Genome-wide association studies are a valuable tool to localize the different mutations causing DCM and will help to develop genetic tests for DCM in certain breeds in the future. Beside the genetic (primary) form of DCM, several important differential diagnoses should be considered, because they can cause secondary forms of DCM, such as taurine-induced cardiomyopathy, or tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy. Breed-specific forms of DCM are known; e.g. arrhythmogenic right-ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) in Boxers, Doberman cardiomyopathy, and DCM in Irish Wolfhounds, Portuguese Water Dogs, Cocker Spaniels and Great Danes. Recently, new diagnostic tools (such as the biomarkers Troponin-I and NT-proBNP) have been evaluated and they were found to already show increases at a time point when the standard diagnostic tools were still within normal limits and only later became abnormal. In some breeds, new echocardiographic methods, such as the Simpson's method of disc, are more sensitive in detecting early echocardiographic changes compared to the previous gold standard, the M-Mode measurements. Tissue-Doppler measurements might provide additional diagnostic tools to detect DCM in the future. In certain breeds, in which ventricular arrhythmias develop before the classical form of DCM, a 24-hour ECG is the best screening method.

• 出版日期2012-2