Cardiovascular Flashcards
What are the non-cardiac signs of cardiac disease?
Reduced production (around 25%) Exercise intolerance Increased urine output Syncope (eg patent ductus arteriosus) Poor appetite when failing
Where is best to test perfusion in a farm animal?
Ears
not legs if lying down- will feel warmer
Why might a farm animal have pale mucous membranes?
Anaemia: Deficiencies - Iron, copper, cobalt Toxicities - Kale, nitrate/nitrite, molybdenum Blood / Protein loss: Haemonchosis Fascioliasis Johnes Disease Sucking Lice PGE Redwater (Babesia) Leptospirosis (acute) Poor Perfusion: Shock (Right Displaced Abomasum) Heart Failure Thrombosis
Why might a farm animal have red mucous membranes?
Toxaemia Salmomellosis (brick red) Pasturellosis Malignant Catarrhal Fever Infectious Bovine Kerato-conjuctivitis (if co-grazing with sheep) Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis
Why might a farm animal have blue mucous membranes (cyanosis)?
Respiratory Failure
Nitrate/Nitrite, Metaldehyde (slug pellets) poisoning (should not be grazed during/immediately after fertilisation of fields)
Congenital cardiac abnormality - Calves (insufficient oxygen circulation)
Why might a farm animal have yellow mucous membranes (jaundice)?
Hepatitis
Haemolytic Anaemia (Babesia – Red Water)
Photosensitisation (from ingesting certain plants)
Ragwort, Kale, Lupin, Copper poisoning (due to over-supplementation)
Post-partum haemoglobinuria
Leptospirosis (abortion)
Why might a farm animal have haemorrhagic mucous membranes?
Anthrax Bracken Sweet vernal grass poisoning Copper toxicity (acute) Leptospirosis Mycotoxicosis (live yeast binds to walls of mycotoxins)
Where can you feel for a pulse in cattle?
Middle Coccygeal artery 10cm below anus
External maxillary artery
Medial artery, inside forelimb - arterial sample
Caudal auricular artery
What should a cow’s heart rate be?
Calves 100 - 120
Cattle 50 – 80, high yielders up to 95
(120+ suggestive of primary cardiac disease)
Under what circumstance are the jugular and subcutaneous abdominal (milk) veins distended?
When is there increased venous pressure?
Right-sided heart failure
Cardiac failure
When is it normal to feel a jugular pulse?
When is it abnormal?
Normal up to 1/3rd way up
Occlude or empty jugular to check if abnormal
All the way up in :
Endocarditis, Pericarditis, haemothorax, hydrothorax, congestive heart failure, valvular stenosis or insufficiency
Sporadic bovine leukosis - Thymic form
Enzootic bovine leukosis - Cardiac form
In a cow, where are the base and apex of the heart located?
Base - 3rd to 6th rib
Apex - 6th rib at articulation of rib to sternum, 2 cm cranial to diaphragm
Regarding farm animals, why might the first and second heart sounds be loud?
1st sound loud if increased force of contraction
2nd sound loud if increased pressure in vessels
How does endocarditis occur in cows?
Persistent bacteraemia e.g. after traumatic reticulitis, nephritis, metritis, mastitis
Caudal vena cava thrombosis is secondary to what?
Where does the thrombosis occur?
Liver abscesses
Occurs between liver and right atrium
Why is it important that cattle and sheep get enough Vit E and selenium?
Vitamin E and selenium-containing enzymes are required as physiological antagonists of free radicals. In the absence of Vit E and/or
selenium, cellular membranes are modified by free radicals and their ability to maintain essential differential gradients for one or more ions is reduced.
What is fractional shortening?
Way of measuring left ventricle performance
Measures and ratios the change in the diameter of the left ventricle between the contracted and relaxed states
LV end-diastolic diameter - LV end-systolic diameter
/ LV end-diastolic diameter
What is a normal value for fractional shortening?
Normal > 25%
How do you calculate ejection fraction?
End diastolic volume - end systolic volume
/ end diastolic volume X 100%
Normal >50%
When scanning the heart, which view is referred to as the ‘home view’?
RPS (right parasternal) long axis 4 chamber view
End of diastole occurs where on an eCG?
Start of QRS complex
End of systole occurs where on an eCG?
End of T wave
Describe how you find the heart when doing an eCG?
Lay animal on its side on an echo table
Clip the hair over the heart, use ultrasound coupling gel for acoustic contact
Imagining can not be carried out through bone or air, so eCG must be carried out through windows between lung lobes
Minimise air-filled lungs by scanning through the lower chest wall through a hole in the echo table
Sector transducers are used to get between ribs and lungs lobes
In an ECG, what is assessed in a RPS long axis view?
Left ventricle shape
Contractility
Mitral valve, colour flow shows whether there is any mitral regurgitation
Can calculate ejection fraction
Atrial septum: left heart failure- may bulge to the right due to high left atrial pressure, vice versa
In an ECG, what can be seen in a RPS 5 chamber view?
Left and right ventricle, left and right atria, aorta
In an ECG, what is assessed in a RPS 5 chamber view?
Abnormalities of the aortic valves or left ventricular outflow
Colour flow can be used to look for turbulence here due to aortic stenosis or regurgitation
Colour flow can be used to assess the septum for a ventricular septal defect
On an ECG, the P wave represents what?
Atrial depolarisation
On a mitral valve M-mode graph, what do the E and A peaks represent?
A peak: atrial contraction
E peak: early passive diastolic filling
What is EPSS?
What is its normal value?
E-point septal separation
Distance from the anterior mitral valve leaflet to the ventricular septum in early diastole
When does the mitral EPSS (e-point septal separation) increase?
Left ventricular dilation
Rounding of the left ventricle
Poor stroke volume
Regarding ECG, which view can be used to obtain aortic velocities?
Subcostal
What is Doppler echocardiography?
The Doppler effect is noted when sound waves are transmitted and reflected off a moving target ie RBCs
Velocities are only accurately measured when the ultrasound beam is parallel with the direction of blood movement
How do you calculate the pressure gradient between two cardiac chambers?
PG= 4 x (v squared)
v: velocity
PG: mmHg
Where is the AV node located?
Above tricuspid valve
What is the function of the Purkinje fibres?
Ensure synchronous contraction of myocardium
On an ECG, the QRS complex represents what?
Conduction through bundle of his and ventricles
On an ECG, the t wave represents what?
Repolarisation of ventricles
What recumbency should a dog be in when having an ECG?
Right lateral recumbency
Lead one shows depolarisation in which direction? (ECG)
Most depolarisation is from right to left as heart lies slightly to left and left muscle mass is greater
What angle should lead 2 be at? (ECG)
Parallel to position of heart in chest
What is DCM?
Dilated cardiomyopathy
How do you calculate index of sphericity?
Assessment of rounding of left ventricle
Left ventricular length (diastole) / left ventricular width (Μ-mode)
Normal > 1.7
Give the grading scale for severity of aortic and pulmonic stenosis
0-40 mmHg = mild
40-80 mmHg = moderate
>80 mmHg = severe
What is the normal pressure in the aorta?
120/80 mmHg
Which worm species can be found in the heart?
Dirofilarias Worms seen in right atrium Cause pulmonary hypertension and thromboembolism -> pressure overload on right ventricle Right sided congestive heart failure Need to extract worms via jugular vein
Define heart failure
A clinical syndrome caused by heart disease, resulting in systolic and/or diastolic function severe enough to overwhelm the normal compensatory mechanisms, resulting in poor cardiac output with reduced peripheral perfusion and/ or elevated filling pressures, causing oedema or effusions
Describe congestive heart failure
Backwards
Associated with elevated filling pressures and extravasation of fluid (eg pulmonary oedema)
What is preload?
Venous return to the heart
Influences the degree of end-diastolic stretch on cardiomyocytes prior to contraction
What is afterload?
The resistance to ventricular ejection during systole
Why should you always do a subjective examination before a physical one when assessing a farm animal with cardiovascular problems?
Chasing an eg calf around could do more harm than good and lead to syncope
What are the major consequences of congestive heart failure?
Oedema and effusions
Peripheral vasocontriction
Tachycardia/ arrhythmias
Remodelling and fibrosis of myocardium
Fall in blood pressure due to low cardiac output causes baroreceptors to do what to sympathetic drive?
Increase sympathetic drive
Cardiac B1 adrenoreceptors -> increase heart rate to increase cardiac output
B1 receptors on Juxtaglomerular apparatus of nephron results in renin release -> activates RAAS
A1 adrenoreceptors on vascular smooth muscle cells -> vasoconstriction to increase blood pressure, and increase venous return (preload) to the heart
How does the RAAS result in vasocontriction?
Angiotensinogen -> angiotensin I (via renin, in the liver)
Angiotensin I -> angiotensin II (via ACE- angiotensin converting enzyme)
Angiotensin II -> vasocontriction
What causes the release of renin from the JGA (juxtaglomerular apparatus)?
B1 receptor stimulation
Reduced kidney perfusion
Reduced sodium concentration
What are the effects of angiotensin II?
Potent vasoconstrictor
Stimulates aldosterone release from Zona glomerulosa of adrenal cortex
Potentiated sympathetic activity
Causes vasopressin release (ADH; antidiuretic hormone) from posterior pituitary
Effects on cardiomyocytes resulting in hypertrophy and fibrosis (myocardial remodelling)
What are the effects of aldosterone?
Acts on distal convoluted tubule of nephron -> sodium and water retention