Abstract
The effect of seasonal variation on hospital admissions and outcomes in humans with cardiovascular disease and congestive heart failure (CHF) has been described. This study evaluates the effect of temperature variation on admissions and outcomes in dogs with myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) and first onset CHF. Ninety-three client-owned dogs with MMVD and a first occurrence of pulmonary edema were included in this retrospective clinical cohort study. Recorded clinical and echocardiographic variables were accumulated and analyzed with dogs allocated into groups in a temperature-wise manner that considered the mean of the average (Tave) and maximum ambient temperature (Tmax) of the 14 days preceding hospital admission. A survival analysis was also performed. No difference was found in the percentage of dogs decompensating in three different temperature periods (i.e., cold, intermediate, and hot temperature) according to both Tave and Tmax. Dogs developing CHF during the intermediate temperatures according to Tmax died earlier from cardiac-related causes (median survival time 280 days, 95% CI = 147–486 days) compared to those decompensating during hot temperatures (median survival time 518 days, 95% CI = 344–819 days, P = 0.039). However, an effect of the ambient temperature on survival was not confirmed by Cox proportional hazard analysis. In conclusion, this study failed to show that ambient temperature has an effect on the first occurrence of CHF and outcomes in dogs with MMVD.
Highlights
Clinical signs included tachypnea and/or dyspnea, tachycardia, systolic heart murmur, and abnormal lung sounds; radiographic findings included increased pulmonary opacity resulting from unstructured interstitial or mixed interstitial-alveolar pattern associated with enlarged cardiac silhouette [32,33]
To study the effect of the ambient temperature on the first occurrence of congestive heart failure (CHF) in dogs with myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD), we considered the precise measurement of atmospheric temperatures in the 14 days preceding the decompensation rather than considering the simple seasonal or monthly trends, as previously performed in some humans and veterinary studies [25,26,27,28,29,30,31]
No difference was found in any of the considered clinical and echocardiographic variables after dividing dogs of the present study according to the the average (Tave) and Tmax in the days preceding the onset of pulmonary edema
Summary
The aims of the present study are: (1) to investigate the effect of ambient temperature on the admission of dogs with MMVD at the time of the first occurrence of cardiogenic pulmonary edema; and (2) to evaluate if the temperature at admission, in addition to other previously recognized variables, could have a prognostic value in dogs with MMVD
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