This report, issued by the ACVIM Specialty of Cardiology consensus panel, revises guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD, also known as endocardiosis and degenerative or chronic valvular heart disease) in dogs, originally published in 2009. Updates were made to diagnostic, as well as medical, surgical, and dietary treatment recommendations. The strength of these recommendations was based on both the quantity and quality of available evidence supporting diagnostic and therapeutic decisions. Management of MMVD before the onset of clinical signs of heart failure has changed substantially compared with the 2009 guidelines, and new strategies to diagnose and treat advanced heart failure and pulmonary hypertension are reviewed.

Background The United States Food and Drug Administration is investigating possible diet‐associated dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs and cats. Objectives To retrospectively review DCM cases for signalment, diet information, echocardiographic changes, and survival. Animals Client‐owned dogs (n = 71). Methods Medical records of dogs diagnosed with DCM between January 1, 2014 and September 30, 2018 were reviewed. Dogs were grouped into “traditional” or “nontraditional” diet categories and whether or not diet was changed after diagnosis. Results For dogs eating nontraditional diets, those that had their diets changed had a larger percentage decrease in normalized systolic left ventricular internal dimension (P = .03) and left atrial:aorta ratio (P < .001) compared to those that did not have their diets changed. Survival time was significantly longer for dogs with DCM eating nontraditional diets that had their diets changed (median survival, 337 days; range, 9‐1307 days) compared to dogs eating nontraditional diets that did not have their diets changed (median survival, 215 days; range, 1‐852 days; P = .002). Conclusions and Clinical Importance Dogs with DCM eating nontraditional diets can experience improvement in cardiac function after diet change but additional research is needed to examine possible associations between diet and DCM.

Background: Focused cardiac ultrasound (FCU) helps detect occult heart disease in human patients. Hypothesis: Focused cardiac ultrasound by a nonspecialist practitioner (NSP) will increase the detection of occult heart disease in asymptomatic cats compared with physical examination and ECG. Animals: Three hundred forty-three client-owned cats: 54 excluded and 289 analyzed. Methods: Multicenter prospective cohort study. Twenty-two NSPs were trained to perform FCU. Cats without clinical signs of heart disease were recruited, and NSPs performed the following in sequential order: physical examination, ECG, FCU, and point-of-care N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide assay (POC-BNP). After each step, NSPs indicated yes, no, or equivocal as to whether they believed heart disease was present. The level of agreement between the NSP diagnosis and a blinded cardiologist's diagnosis after echocardiogram was evaluated using Cohen's kappa test. Results: Cardiologist diagnoses included 148 normal cats, 102 with heart disease, and 39 equivocal ones. Agreement between NSP and cardiologist was slight after physical examination (kappa 0.253 [95% CI, 0.172-0.340]), did not increase after ECG (0.256 [0.161-0.345]; P = .96), increased after FCU (0.468 [0.376-0.558]; P = .002), and the level of agreement was similar after POC-BNP (0.498 [0.419-0.580]; P = .67). In cats with mild, moderate, and marked occult heart disease, the proportion of cats having a NSP diagnosis of heart disease after FCU was 45.6%, 93.1%, and 100%, respectively. Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Focused cardiac ultrasound performed by NSPs increased the detection of occult heart disease, especially in cats with moderate to marked disease. Focused cardiac ultrasound appears to be a feasible and useful tool to assist NSPs in the detection of heart disease in cats.

Background: Boxer dogs are routinely screened by echocardiography to exclude congenital and acquired heart disease. Individuals of a given breed may span a large range of body sizes, potentially invalidating linear regression of M-mode measurements against body weight. Echocardiographic ratio indices (ERIs) provide a novel method of characterizing echocardiographic differences between Boxers and other dog breeds. Hypothesis: ERIs obtained from overtly healthy Boxer dogs presented for cardiac screening will be different from ERIs established for normal non-Boxer dogs, and those differences will be unrelated to aortic velocity or systolic blood pressure. Animals: Eighty-one Boxers with no outward clinical signs of heart disease were studied. Methods: All dogs were examined by 2-dimensional, M-mode, and Doppler echocardiography. M-mode measurements were used to perform ERI calculations, and the indices in Boxers were compared between Boxers with varying severity of arrhythmia and those of normal non-Boxer dogs. Results: Differences in weight-based ERIs, which reflect increased thickness of the left ventricular free wall (LVW) and interventricular septum (IVS) and smaller aortic size, were found in overtly healthy Boxer dogs compared with normal non-Boxer dogs. ERIs of left atrial and LV cavity size in overtly healthy Boxers were not significantly different from those of non-Boxer dogs. Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Boxer dogs may have an increased relative thickness of the LVW and IVS that is independent of aortic size, aortic velocity, or arterial blood pressure, and this morphology should be taken into consideration when screening Boxers by echocardiography.