Innovation in Boxers with Cardiac Disease
Cardiomyopathy is a common affliction of the Boxer breed with as many of one-third of Boxers developing cardiomyopathy during their lifetime. Early in the disease affected dogs develop ventricular arrhythmias, which are often isolated and infrequent. At this stage a routine ECG may identify ventricular arrhythmias and lead to suspicion of disease, but the definitive diagnosis usually is established from a combination of a 24-hour ambulatory ECG (Holter) recording and echocardiography. As the disease progresses and arrhythmia worsens, severe ventricular arrhythmias can result in clinical signs of syncope or sudden death. Some proportion of dogs will develop features of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), with ventricular dilation and reduced contractile function, often progressing to overt congestive heart failure. Recent studies have indicated that dogs that go on to develop the DCM phenotype of the disease are likely to be homozygous for the same genetic mutation (in the striatin gene) associated with the arrhythmic form of the disease. This suggests that DCM in Boxers is likely a continuum of the same disease. Continue reading