Volume: 56 Issue: 2
Year: 2025, Page: 304-312, Doi: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2025.56.2.304-312
Received: Jan. 16, 2025 Accepted: March 3, 2025 Published: June 30, 2025
Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), the primary myocardial disease, is the second most prevalent acquired cardiac condition in dogs after mitral valve disease. Although overt forms characterised by prominent clinical signs are typically easier to diagnose, occult cardiomyopathy (OCM) cases with no clinical symptoms, remain less recognised and inadequately researched. This study aimed to identify and analyse both occult and overt forms of cardiomyopathy in dogs, comparing their clinical and pathological features with a healthy control group. Eight dogs with clinical diagnosis of overt DCM, displaying signs of congestive heart failure and eight dogs with electrocardiographic and echocardiographic changes indicative of DCM without clinical symptoms were selected. Dogs with overt DCM exhibited signs of visceral and pulmonary congestion, while a soft systolic cardiac murmur was the only clinical sign observed in dogs with OCM. The OCM dogs showed a significantly elevated respiratory rate, whereas overt DCM dogs exhibited elevated values for all physiological parameters except temperature. Most haematological parameters indicating anaemia were significantly lower in overt DCM dogs, while only VPRC levels showed a significant decrease in OCM dogs. Hypocalcaemia in overt DCM was the only serum biochemical abnormality identified in both forms of cardiomyopathy. Serum alterations of thyroid hormones were not associated with occurrence of cardiomyopathies. Among cardiac markers studied, serum CK-MB did not reveal any significant changes in either OCM or DCM, while elevated NT proBNP levels, well above the cut off was noticed in OCM but not in DCM making it as more reliable cardiac marker for OCM.
Keywords: Cardiomyopathy, DCM, occult, OCM
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Umesh, C. G., Arun George, Madhavan Unny, N., Karthiayini, K., Shyma V. H. and Philip, L. M. 2024. Comparative
clinico-pathological studies in occult and overt cardiomyopathies in dogs. J. Vet. Anim. Sci. 56 (2):304-312