Preoperative Electrocardiographic Study of Dogs at the Veterinary Hospital of Pontifícia Universidade Católica Do Paraná

Abstract

Electrocardiogram is considered a substantial instrument in the clinical evaluation of patients with heart disease. This tool can be used to determine the origin and frequency of the impulse as well as the cardiac conduction disorders. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency and type of electrocardiographic abnormalities in the immediate preoperative period of 60 dogs seen in the surgery department of the Veterinary Hospital of Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná -PUCPR, campus Toledo, between September 2015 and June 2017, and to analyze its correlation with the different breeds, sex, age, and weight of each patient. Alterations in the preoperative electrocardiogram have been shown to be frequent and their occurrence is independent of age, breed, size, and sex of the animal. The most frequent findings in the present study were the following: respiratory sinus arrhythmia (30%), atrial fibrillation (16,7%), sinus tachycardia (10%), increase in R wave amplitude (10%), and ST segment depression (10%). Therefore, electrocardiography proved to be an auxiliary diagnostic method of great relevance in the dogs' preoperative period, guaranteeing greater anesthesia safety and lower risks of cardiovascular complications. Keywords: anesthetic safety; cardiac conduction; electrocardiogram. ResumoA eletrocardiografia é considerada um instrumento substancial na avaliação clínica de pacientes cardiopatas, sendo possível por meio dela, determinar a origem e a frequência do impulso, bem como os distúrbios de condução cardíaca. Objetivou-se com o presente estudo avaliar a frequência e o tipo de anormalidades eletrocardiográficas existentes no pré-operatório imediato de 60 cães atendidos no departamento de cirurgia do Hospital Veterinário da Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná -PUCPR, campus Toledo, entre setembro de 2015 e junho de 2017, e analisar a sua correlação com as diferentes raças, sexo, idade e peso de cada paciente. Constatou-se que as alterações no eletrocardiograma pré-operatório são frequentes e sua ocorrência é independente de idade, raça, porte e sexo do animal. Os achados mais frequentes no presente estudo foram os seguintes: arritmia sinusal respiratória (30%), fibrilação atrial (16,7%), taquicardia sinusal (10%), aumento na amplitude da onda R (10%) e infradesnivelamento de segmento ST (10%). Desta maneira, a eletrocardiografia 2

Risk of arrhythmias in dogs with structural heart disease

“…In addition, conduction disorders are relatively common in dogs, even those without heart disease, due to the physiological predominance of parasympathetic over sympathetic tone, predisposing dogs to the appearance of bradyarrhythmias, such as the atrioventricular block (AVB) diagnosed in the study ( Van Vliet et al 1995). These findings corroborate the findings of previous studies that demonstrated the prevalence of these disorders in a large number of animals (Patterson et al 1961), but more recent studies carried out by Carvalho et al (2009) and Silveira et al (2018) showed a lower frequency of these arrhythmias, which may be related to the absence of symptoms. Although first-and second-degree AVBs can be asymptomatic and therefore of no clinical importance, Risk of arrhythmias in dogs with structural heart disease Santilli et al (2016) demonstrated the progression of AVB degrees in 21.8% of the animals evaluated, and these findings are clinically relevant.…”