Evaluation of Muscle Blood Flow in Dogs with Chronic Degenerative Mitral Valve Disease under Treatment

Abstract

In humans with clinically established heart failure, it has been widely suggested that many symptoms are attributable to peripheral perfusion abnormalities located, above all, in the skeletal muscle and not to central cardiac haemodynamic measurements. In veterinary patients, little is known about the real associated of muscle blood flow alterations in different clinical disorders. In dogs, the most common cause of heart failure is Chronic Degenerative Mitral Valve Disease (CDMVD). Thus, the aim of this work was to compare different quantitative measures related to peripheral muscular blood flow in healthy dogs and in dogs with advanced CDMVD under treatment. For this, the transcutaneous Doppler ultrasound, that is a non-invasive quantitative method to evaluate blood flow changes, was used. The data were obtained from femoral artery of seven healthy dogs and seven dogs with CDMVD that were receiving cardiovascular treatment at home. The results demonstrated that the resistance parameters of the femoral blood flow were significantly higher in dogs with CDMVD, compared with those of healthy dogs. The mean values of the femoral blood volume were lower in dogs with CDMVD in relation to healthy dogs. In conclusion, this study suggests that despite the cardiac therapy, the dogs may have variations in muscle blood flow that could contribute to the progression of heart disease and impair peripheral perfusion.