Prognostic criteria for assessing of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in cats

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Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) occurs in 10-15% of cats in the population [5, 7]. Cardiomyopathy is a myocardial disease in which the structure and function of the heart muscle are impaired in the absence of any other condition that could cause the observed deviation [10]. To assess the state of the cardiovascular system, echocardiography, electrocardiography, X-ray examination, as well as, importantly, physical examination are used in veterinary cardiology [1, 4, 5, 10]. Visual diagnostic techniques are the most objective and informative, however, it is the components of the physical examination and the timely response of the owner to deviations in the parameters of the physical examination that allows you to select and evaluate the effectiveness of the treatment of heart disease. Counting the number of respiratory movements at rest (during sleep) is one of the important criteria for physical examination available to the cat owner [9]. This indicator allows you to adjust the treatment, as well as predict the possible onset of deterioration. The aim of the presented study was to determine the main prognostic parameters in cats with congestive heart failure caused by HCMP stage C [10]. A group of 4 DSH cats was formed, in which hypertrophic cardiomyopathy stage C was detected (according to ACVIM staging). When assessing the main indicators, it was revealed that unfavorable prognostic signs are the diameter of the left atrium (correlation degree -0.62), the number of respiratory movements at rest - both before and after the start of treatment (correlation degree -0.77 and -0.81, respectively). It should also be noted a moderate positive correlation between the indicator of life expectancy and the fraction of contractility of the left atrium (0.39). However, it should be noted that in order to more accurately determine the diagnostic significance and the possibility of determining forecasts, it is necessary to increase the number of animal samples with an assessment of indicators in dynamics.