This consensus statement provides expert guidelines for evaluating and managing cardiovascular abnormalities in performance horses, emphasizing regular monitoring and identifying high-risk conditions that preclude riding or driving.
Supports activity restrictions in high-risk equine athletes; extends prior observational data while remaining hypothesis-generating.
Murmurs and arrhythmias are commonly detected in equine athletes. Assessing the relevance of these cardiovascular abnormalities in the performance horse can be challenging. Determining the impact of a cardiovascular disorder on performance, life expectancy, horse and rider or driver safety relative to the owner's future expectations is paramount. A comprehensive assessment of the cardiovascular abnormality detected is essential to determine its severity and achieve these aims. This consensus statement presents a general approach to the assessment of cardiovascular abnormalities, followed by a discussion of the common murmurs and arrhythmias. The description, diagnosis, evaluation, and prognosis are considered for each cardiovascular abnormality. The recommendations presented herein are based on available literature and a consensus of the panelists. While the majority of horses with cardiovascular abnormalities have a useful performance life, periodic reexaminations are indicated for those with clinically relevant cardiovascular disease. Horses with pulmonary hypertension, CHF , or complex ventricular arrhythmias should not be ridden or driven.
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Reef et al. (2014) studied this question.
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