Cardiovascular examination Flashcards
What are important aspects to beginning a cardiovascular examination?
- Signalment
- History
- Observation
- Physical examination/Cardiovascular examination
Questions to get on history
**Basic questions but also:
- Is the pet coughing? Frequency? Gagging?
- Is there heavy breathing or excessive panting?
- Episodes of weakness or collapse?
- Medications? When? How much? Response?
Things to observe
- Mentation
- Respiratory pattern
- Conformation
Components of a cardiovascular examination
- Mucous membranes (+CRT)
- Jugular veins
- Thorax/precordium
- Abdomen
- Peripheral pulses
- Auscultation
Mucous membranes normal
- Pink, CRT <2 sec.
Meaning of pale mucous membranes
- Anemia, peripheral vasoconstriction
Meaning of bright red mucous membranes
- Excitement, peripheral vasodilation, sepsis, polycythemia
Meaning of blue/grey mucous membranes
- Airway disease
- Pulmonary parenchymal disease
- Right to left cardiac shunt
- Hypoventilation
- Shock
- Methemoglobinemia
Meaning of icterus mucous membranes
- Hepatobiliary disease
- Hemolysis
Are jugular vein pulsations normal?
- NOT normal in standing small animals
Meaning of jugular pulses
- They do NOT indicate congestive heart failure
- They DO indicate elevated right heart filling pressures or obstruction to filling of the right heart
Causes of jugular pulsations
- Tricuspid valve insufficiency
- Hypertrophied right ventricle (pulmonic stenosis, pulmonary hypertension)
- Certain arrhythmias (complete heart block)
Causes of jugular distention (+/- pulses)
- Occlusion of the cranial vena cava or right ventricle by external compression, mass, or thrombosis
- Very high right heart filling pressure (e.g. severe pericardial effusion)
Hepatojugular reflex
- Positive result when you press on the liver and see a jugular pulse that was not present prior to the maneuver
Pseudo-jugular pulsation
- Pulsation of the carotid artery sometimes seen at the thoracic inlet in thin dogs - can be mistaken for a jugular pulse
- If you palpate, you would feel an arterial pulse
- A jugular pulse you should not feel
Where is the normal precordium?
- LEFT
What are causes of shifted precordial impulse (to the right)?
- Cardiac enlargement (e.g. right heart hypertrophy –> prominent right)
- Mass lesions displacing the heart
- Collapsed lung lobes allowing for cardiac displacement
- Focal accumulations of air or fluid
What can cause a decreased precordial impulse intensity?
- Pericardial effusion
- Pleural effusion
- Obesity
- Weak cardiac contractions
- Thoracic masses
- Pneumothorax
Precordial thrill
- Loud murmurs have a palpable buzzing sensation on the chest wall over the heart (palpable murmur) called a precordial thrill
- Allows you to grade a murmur as a 6
CV disease things to look for with abdominal distension
- Organomegaly
- Fluid wave
- Distension
What are general categories of things you can feel with peripheral pulses?
- Hyperkinetic pulses
- Hypokinetic pulses
- Pulse deficits
What are the characteristics that make a pulse strong or weak?
- Pulse pressure or the difference between systolic and diastolic pressure
- Anything that increases systolic portion (e.g. excitable, energetic, or exercising pet) to increase the difference would feel like a strong pulse
- If the animal has a lower systolic pressure due to blood loss and diastolic pressure is the same, there can be a hypokinetic pulse
Hyperkinetic pulse definition
- Pulses that feel more prominent than normal
Causes of hyperkinetic pulses (general and specific)
- Wide separation between diastolic and systolic ARTERIAL pressure
- Common causes: high adrenergic tone, PDA (blood goes down arterial side of femoral artery and also pulmonary system, which decreases diastolic pressure), and aortic regurgitation (diastolic blood leaving the system)
Hypokinetic pulses definition
- Feel weaker than normal
Hypokinetic pulses causes (general and specific)
- Reduced stroke volume or narrower pulse pressure
- Heart failure, hypovolemia, some arrhythmias
Pulse deficit definition
- Fewer femoral pulses than palpable or auscultable heart beats
Pulse deficit causes
- Usually indicates an arrhythmia such as ventricular premature contractions
What should you do diagnostically if you feel pulse deficits?
- ECG
What should precede cardiac auscultation?
- General physical exam
- Mucous membranes
- Arterial pulse
- Jugular distension
- Precordial palpation
What can you identify with cardiac auscultation?
- Heart murmurs
- Transient sounds (clicks, rubs)
- Gallops (S3, S4)
- Irregular rhythm
- Evaluate lung sounds
Rules for cardiac auscultation
- Rule #1: Find a quiet room
- Rule #2: Need a standing patient
What is the most common cause of a murmur?
- Turbulent blood flow
- Normal blood flow is smooth/laminar and silent
Causes of turbulent blood flow (and which cause is most common)?
- Increased velocity (Narrowed vessels, abnormal valves, shunts)
- Decreased viscosity (anemia is most common cause)
- Large diameter vessels (horses, cows; normal or “physiologic” murmurs)
Etiology of S1
- Closing of AV valves and vibrations of cardiac walls caused by abrupt deceleration of blood flow
- S1 is longer and lower pitched than S2