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At the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) Forum 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, third-year cardiology resident at Texas A&M University, Tess Sykes, DVM, presented a poster on “Echocardiographic Findings and Prevalence of Heart murmurs in clinically healthy adult borzoi dogs. »1 Dr. Sykes also received his DMV from Texas A&M University and currently practices in Texas. During his poster presentation, Sykes pointed out that echocardiographic measurements of heart size may differ in greyhounds compared to non-greyhound breeds. Cardiological complications are well known in greyhounds, whippets, Irish wolfhounds and Scottish deer, but little is known about the Borzoi. Data suggests that this breed may still be prone to developing dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), ventricular arrhythmias, and myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD).
Sykes studied 146 clinically healthy Borzoi (86 females, 60 males) with a median age of 4 years. Echocardiograms were performed by board-certified cardiologists on each dog. The results revealed that 86 of these dogs suffered from heart murmurs (58.9%). Additionally, 119/146 Borzoi were structurally normal, with 64 of this group having an “innocent” or physiological heart murmur. Fifty-nine structurally normal dogs (50%) had trace or mild atrioventricular (AV) valve regurgitation. Structural heart disease was found in 21 dogs and 6 dogs had an equivocal diagnosis.
Of the patients studied, 25 underwent longitudinal echocardiography examinations during the two years of the study. Of the 25 examined, 2 dogs had developed occult DCM, 2 other dogs had developed equivocal DCM, and 2 others had developed stage BI MMVD. However, 2 of the dogs diagnosed with DCM normalized a year later after a diet change.
From this study, Sykes concludes that cardiac screening based solely on auscultation may not be the best practice due to the high prevalence of physiological murmurs in structurally normal Borzoi. Acquired heart disease was identified in this study group of healthy Borzoi dogs, with the presence of DCM and MMVD. Sykes recommends that veterinary cardiologists learn more about this breed’s disease predispositions and normal spectrum to improve cardiac breed screening.
Reference
Sykes T. Echocardiographic findings and prevalence of heart murmurs in clinically healthy adult borzoi dogs. Presented at the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) Forum; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. June 14-16, 2023.