VETERINARY MEDICINE: New method to treat life-threatening heart arrhythmias in dogs.

VETERINARY MEDICINE: New method to treat life-threatening heart arrhythmias in dogs. Morris Animal Foundation-funded researchers have developed a new treatment for dogs with a rare, but life-threatening, arrhythmia caused by atrioventricular accessory pathways (APs). The minimally invasive technique, which uses radiofrequencies, is modified from a human cardiology procedure and has a more than 95 percent success rate in treating dogs with this type of arrhythmia. Arrhythmias are abnormal heart rhythms. Some arrhythmias are normal variants (such as the respiratory sinus arrhythmia in dogs). Dangerous arrhythmias are those that result in clinical signs and/or put the animal risk of sudden cardiac death. Cardiac causes of arrhythmias include: Heart muscle disease (such as dilated cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy), congenital heart defects (especially subaortic stenosis), severe valve leakage and enlargement of the cardiac chambers (chronic degenerative mitral valve disease), myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle), trauma to the heart muscle (animal being hit by a car), age-related changes, and infiltration of the heart muscle (inflammatory cells or cancer cells) VETERINARY MEDICINE: New method to treat life-threatening heart arrhythmias in dogs. Non-cardiac causes of arrhythmias include: Gastric dilation and volvulus (stomach turns and flips on itself), inflammation of the pancreas, low blood magnesium, severe anemia; diseases of the spleen, liver or GI tract; neurologic disease (i.e. brain tumors); endocrine disease (i.e., of the thyroid gland, adrenal glands); muscular dystrophy, anesthetic agents, medications, toxins (i.e., chocolate intoxication). Symptoms of an arrhythmia include: Weakness, collapse, exercise intolerance, fainting, fluid accumulation in the abdomen, in the lungs or around the lungs (congestive heart failure), or even sudden cardiac death. However, it is not uncommon for dogs and cats to appear outwardly normal (no clinical signs) despite having a cardiac arrhythmia. The prognosis is highly variable depending on what type of arrhythmia is present and if there is a non-cardiac (treatable) cause versus underlying severe heart disease (i.e., dilated cardiomyopathy in Doberman Pinschers).