Cardiomyopathy prevalence in 780 apparently healthy cats in rehoming centres (the CatScan study)
- Source:
- Journal of veterinary cardiology 2015 v.17 pp. S244
- ISSN:
- 1760-2734
- Subject:
- adults, body condition, body weight, cardiomyopathy, cats, confidence interval, cross-sectional studies, echocardiography, heart, males, regression analysis, systolic blood pressure
- Abstract:
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) appears to be common in cats and, based on pilot data, a prevalence of 15% has been hypothesized. The objectives were to screen a large population of apparently healthy adult cats for cardiac disease, and identify factors associated with a diagnosis of HCM.A total of 1007 apparently healthy cats ≥6 months of age.In this prospective, cross-sectional study, the inclusion criteria were: apparently healthy cats, aged ≥6 months, available for rehoming over a 17-month period from two rehoming centres. Hypertensive or hyperthyroid cats were excluded. Body weight, body condition score, auscultation, systolic blood pressure and two-dimensional (2-D) echocardiography were evaluated. Cats with left ventricular end-diastolic wall thickness ≥6 mm on 2-D echocardiography were considered to have HCM.Complete data were obtained in 780 cats. Heart murmur prevalence was 40.8% (95% confidence interval (CI) 37.3–44.3%), 70.4% of which were considered functional. The prevalence of HCM was 14.7% (95% CI 12.3–17.4%), congenital disease 0.5% (95% CI 0.1–1.3%), and other cardiomyopathies 0.1% (95% CI 0.0–0.7%). The HCM prevalence increased with age. The positive predictive value of a heart murmur for indicating HCM was 17.9–42.6% (higher in old cats), and the negative predictive value was 90.2–100% (higher in young cats). The factors associated with a diagnosis of HCM in binary logistic regression models were male sex, increased age, increased body condition score and a heart murmur (particularly grade III/VI or louder).Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is common in apparently healthy cats, in contrast with other cardiomyopathies. Heart murmurs are also common, and are often functional.
- Agid:
- 5337790
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvc.2015.03.008