A longitudinal prospective study was performed in 95 Doberman Pinschers with DCM.
Forty-one dogs died within 3 months after the last cardiac examination (SCD-group) and were compared to 54 Doberman Pinschers with DCM surviving 1 year after inclusion.
Holter-ECG, echocardiography, measurement of N-terminal prohormone of brain-natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), and cardiac Troponin I (cTnI) concentrations were recorded for all dogs.
Volume overload of the left ventricle (left ventricular end-diastolic volume (LVEDV/BSA) > 91.3 mL/m²) was the single best variable to predict SCD.
The probability of SCD increases 8.5-fold (CI0.95 = 0.8–35.3) for every 50 mL/m²-unit increment in LVEDV/BSA.
Ejection fraction (EF), left ventricular end-systolic volume (LVESV/BSA) and NT-proBNP were highly correlated with LVEDV/BSA (r = −0.63, 0.96, 0.86, respectively).
Generated conditional inference trees (CTREEs) revealed that the presence of ventricular tachycardia (VT), increased concentration of cTnI, and the fastest rate (FR) of ventricular premature complexes (VPC) ≥260 beats per minute (bpm) are additional important variables to predict SCD.
Conditional inference trees provided in this study might be useful for risk assessment of SCD in Doberman Pinschers with DCM.
Source: Klüser, L., Holler, P.J., Simak, J., Tater, G., Smets, P., Rügamer, D., Küchenhoff, H. and Wess, G. (2016), Predictors of Sudden Cardiac Death in Doberman Pinschers with Dilated Cardiomyopathy. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 30: 722–732. doi: 10.1111/jvim.13941
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