Heart pathologies in dolphins stranded along the northwestern Italian coast

Scaglione, Frine Eleonora; Bollo, E.; Pregel, Paola; Chiappino, Laura; Sereno, Alessandra; Mignone, Walter; R, Moschi; Garibaldi, Fulvio; Tittarelli, Claudia Marcela; Guarda, F

doi:10.3354/dao02672

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…To our knowledge, this is the first report of a congenital cardiac anomaly in a harbor porpoise (Gray & Conklin 1974, Powell et al 2009, Scaglione et al 2013). In addition, we are not aware of any previous reports of a congenital cardiac anomaly diagnosed with transthoracic echocardiography in a live harbor porpoise.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Echocardiographic diagnosis and necropsy findings of a congenital ventricular septal defect in a stranded harbor porpoise

Szatmári¹,

Bunskoek²,

Kuiken³

et al. 2016

Dis. Aquat. Org.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A live-stranded harbor porpoise Phocoena phocoena was found on the west coast of the Dutch island Texel (North Sea) and transported to a rehabilitation center for small cetaceans, where it underwent a veterinary health check. Cardiac auscultation revealed a systolic cardiac murmur with the point of maximal intensity in the right hemithorax with an intensity of IV out of VI. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed a congenital ventricular septal defect with left-to-right shunting. Because the left atrium was not dilated according to the reference range of canine left atrium to aortic ratio, the presence of congestive heart failure was considered very unlikely. Therefore, this congenital cardiac anomaly was thought to be a clinically non-relevant incidental finding and would not explain the weakness, coughing, anorexia, vomiting, and diarrhea. Because the animal was still unable to swim or eat by itself after 2 wk of supportive care, it was euthanized. Post-mortem examination confirmed the presence of a ventricular septal defect. The weight of the heart relative to the animal's length was greater than expected, using linear regression analysis on the lengths and cardiac weights of 71 other stranded wild harbor porpoises without macroscopic cardiac pathologic changes. This finding suggests that the left ventricle had an eccentric hypertrophy because of volume overload resulting from the intracardiac shunt. This is the first report of a congenital cardiac anomaly and its ante-mortem diagnosis in this species. Data presented for the other 71 harbor porpoises may provide reference values for this species.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Echocardiographic diagnosis and necropsy findings of a congenital ventricular septal defect in a stranded harbor porpoise

Szatmári¹,

Bunskoek²,

Kuiken³

et al. 2016

Dis. Aquat. Org.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The low prevalence of neoplasia we observed is shared by previous studies on stranded cetaceans, except for the cases described in the beluga whale population of the St. Lawrence River estuary (Newman and Smith 2006). Another finding of interest was an aneurysm of the right sinus of Valsalva in one striped dolphin, which might have contributed to the stranding of the animal, as described elsewhere (Scaglione et al 2013).…”

Section: Natural Causes Of Deathmentioning

confidence: 76%

“…Metabolic disorders involving postrenal urinary obstruction and degenerative heart disorders were found. Some of these lesions have been described by Scaglione et al (2013), who also underscored the scanty knowledge about heart disease in cetaceans and the need to study them more carefully by comparing similarities and differences in relation to land mammals and humans and to evaluate the possible effects of specific infectious diseases on cardiac development and embryogenesis.…”

Section: Natural Causes Of Deathmentioning

confidence: 99%

Postmortem Findings in Cetaceans Found Stranded in the Pelagos Sanctuary, Italy, 2007–14

Giorda

Ballardini

Guardo

et al. 2017

Journal of Wildlife Diseases

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Between 2007 and 2014, 83 cetaceans were found stranded along the Ligurian coast of Italy, in the Pelagos Sanctuary, the largest marine protected area in the Mediterranean basin. Forty-nine (59%) were submitted to complete or partial necropsy, depending on the conservation status of the carcass. Based on gross and histological pathology and ancillary testing, the cause of death was determined and categorized as anthropogenic or natural (i.e., nonanthropogenic) in origin for 33 animals (67%) and of undetermined origin in the remaining 16 (33%). Natural causes of death, accompanied by either poor or good nutritional status, were attributed to 29 animals (59%), whereas four (8%) were diagnosed with an anthropogenic cause of death, consisting of interaction with fishing activities. Infectious and noninfectious disease was the most common cause of death, involving 29 cetaceans (59%). These data are valuable for understanding health and mortality trends in cetacean populations and can provide information for establishing policies for cetacean conservation and management in such an important protected area of the Mediterranean basin.

show abstract

“…Interestingly, there are lipid species that were found to be specific to atherosclerotic plaques (Stegemann et al, 2011). Thus, the relevance of this study of small cetacean hearts is further stressed by the fact that these marine mammals also present similar forms of cardiac disease, including atherosclerosis and myocarditis, which have been reported both in wild and captive animals, although the incidence of these diseases is hard to ascertain, especially in free ranging specimens (Harris & Schmitt, 2014; Scaglione et al, 2013). Also, small cetaceans have also been reported to present other metabolic syndrome hallmarks, namely insulin resistance‐associated metabolic perturbations (Colegrove & Venn‐Watson, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Characterization of the cardiac phospholipidome of small cetaceans provides adaptational insight and a foundation for indirect population health screening

Monteiro

Maciel

Maia

et al. 2021

Marine Mammal Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The maintenance of a tightly regulated heart lipidome is a general hallmark of mammal health. However, in the case of cetaceans, heart tissue lipid composition remains obscure. This work represents a first in‐depth state‐of‐the‐art characterization of the lipid content of small cetacean hearts, namely those of Delphinus delphis, Phocoena phocoena, and Stenella coeruleoalba. Phospholipid classes identified were similar to those found in terrestrial mammals. Regarding fatty acid profiles, they revealed a much higher n‐3 fatty acid content than that reported for terrestrial counterparts. Phospholipidome characterization allowed identification of 198 lipid species, including phospholipids, lysophospholipids, and sphingomyelins, generally characterized by a high content of species with esterified n‐3 fatty acids. The cardiac lipid profile of the three cetacean species is similar in terms of lipid classes, fatty acids, and even molecular lipid species present. However, quantitative differences suggest a divergence of S. coeruleoalba from the other species in terms of fatty acid and phospholipid profile. The identified differences regarding terrestrial counterparts will contribute to better understanding the details of small cetacean cardiac physiology. Moreover, the characterization of cardiac phospholipidome may represent an opportunity to establish lipidomic‐based practical tools to reliably and reproducibly assess small cetacean health population status by remote sampling.

show abstract

Heart pathologies in dolphins stranded along the northwestern Italian coast

Cited by 11 publications

References 17 publications

Echocardiographic diagnosis and necropsy findings of a congenital ventricular septal defect in a stranded harbor porpoise

Echocardiographic diagnosis and necropsy findings of a congenital ventricular septal defect in a stranded harbor porpoise

Postmortem Findings in Cetaceans Found Stranded in the Pelagos Sanctuary, Italy, 2007–14

Characterization of the cardiac phospholipidome of small cetaceans provides adaptational insight and a foundation for indirect population health screening

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About