Prevalence of attenuated wavy fibers in myocardium of dogs with dilated cardiomyopathy.

摘要

Records of 70 dogs clinically suspected to have dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM; i.e., fractional shortening <25%, absence of echocardiographic lesions other than chamber dilatation, and radiographic or postmortem evidence of congestive heart failure) and dogs with chronic valvular disease (n=60), congenital heart disease (n=49), myocardial infarcts (n=23), myocarditis (n=8), or endocarditis (n=7) were reviewed. Echocardiography and electrocardiography were performed, and thoracic radiographs were obtained with dogs in left lateral recumbency. Necropsy specimens were examined for attenuated wavy fibres (i.e., myocardial cells <6μm in diameter with a wavy appearance). 65 of 70 dogs suspected to have DCM were confirmed to have the disease on postmortemexamination, and 64 of 65 had attenuated wavy fibres. The remaining 5 dogs were found during postmortem examination to have heart disease other than DCM, and none had attenuated wavy fibres. Only 1 of the other 147 dogs examined had attenuated wavy fibres. It is concluded that histological examination for attenuated wavy fibres may be a useful postmortem test for DCM in dogs.