Investigation of the cardiac effects of exercise testing on apparently healthy Boxer dogs

Figures

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  FIGURE 1. Selection process. ACM, pre‐existing diagnosis of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy; AS/SAS, aortic stenosis/subaortic stenosis; ASD, atrial septal defect; DCM, dilated cardiomyopathy; GI, gastrointestinal; HBT, heart base tumor; IMTP, immune‐mediated thrombocytopenia; MCT, mast cell tumor; MRSP, methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius; N, number of dogs; SSS, sick sinus syndrome/sinus node dysfunction.

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  FIGURE 2. Study design. BP, blood pressure; ECG, electrocardiogram; ExT, exercise testing; h, hour; hs‐cTnI, high‐sensitivity cardiac troponin I assay.

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  FIGURE 3. Results of Holter monitoring of dogs at baseline and with exercise testing. PVCs, premature ventricular complexes.

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  FIGURE 4. Receiver operating characteristic curves depicting the sensitivity and specificity of serum cardiac troponin I concentration as measured by high‐sensitivity assay to discern between Boxer dogs with >100 PVCs/24 hours and those with ≤100 PVCs/24 hours at baseline (green; AUC, 0.76) and with ExT (orange; AUC, 0.80).

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  FIGURE 5. Individual dogs' changes in numbers of PVCs/24 hours from baseline Holter recording to ExT Holter recording. Blue line denotes 100 PVCs/24 hours. Unchanged corresponded to increase or decrease of <10 PVCs/24 hours. Values of 0 PVCs were changed to 1 PVC to fit log scale.

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  FIGURE 6. Box plots comparing pre‐exercise and post‐exercise [hs‐cTnI] in 30 apparently healthy Boxer dogs. Each box represents the IQR. Solid horizontal lines within boxes represent medians. Tukey‐style whiskers extend to 1.5 × IQR beyond the boxes. The dots denote outliers. [hs‐cTnI], cardiac troponin I concentrations measured by the high‐sensitivity assay; IQR, interquartile range.

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  FIGURE 7. Exercise‐associated increase in [hs‐cTnI] in Boxer dogs with ≤100 PVCs/24 hours and >100 PVCs/24 hours. Each box represents the interquartile range. Solid horizontal lines within boxes represent median values. Tukey‐style whiskers extend to a maximum of 1.5 × IQR beyond the box. The dots denote outliers. [hs‐cTnI], cardiac troponin I concentration measured by high‐sensitivity assay; PVCs, premature ventricular complexes.

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  FIGURE 8. Receiver operating characteristic curve depicting the sensitivity and specificity of serum [hs‐cTnI] for discerning between apparently healthy Boxer dogs with and without the striatin mutation.