Establishes breed-specific echocardiographic reference values for normal Irish wolfhounds, noting high individual variability that limits the predictive value of body weight.
May guide echocardiographic assessment in Irish wolfhounds; leaves open clinical utility of weight-based predictions given high variability.
Out of 400 Irish wolfhounds cardiologically examined, echocardiographic measurements of 262 normal dogs were analyzed to obtain reference values for the breed. Based on regression analysis, several echocardiographic parameters showed significant linear correlation with body weight and with age, but coefficients of determination were low. Therefore, due to a high individual variability of echocardiographic measurements in adult Irish wolfhounds, the predictive value of body weight for echocardiographic measurements was clinically not relevant. Sex had no influence on echocardiographic values. For the estimation of myocardial function, end-systolic volume index (ESVI) (mean, 29.0 ml/m2 +/- standard deviation [SD], 5.9 ml/m2) was determined for the group of 262 normal dogs.
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A. Vollmar (1999) studied this question.
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