Key result
Pre-exercise cardiac auscultation provides low-cost screening for arrhythmias and murmurs to prevent sudden death in equine athletes.
Why the study?
Cardiac adverse events and exercise-associated deaths affect horse health, rider safety, and public perception of welfare in equestrian sports, motivating a tutorial description of cardiac auscultation for pre-exercise screening in the equine athlete.
Pre-exercise cardiac auscultation in equine athletes is described as a low-cost strategy to detect atrial fibrillation and concerning murmurs to help prevent exercise-associated sudden death.
Supports pre-exercise auscultation screening in equine athletes; leaves open prospective validation for sudden death prevention.
Objective: To describe the highlights of cardiac auscultation of the equine athlete in the context of pre-exercise screening for cardiac adverse event prevention. Animals: Horses. Methods: Tutorial description. Results: Description of the highlights of cardiac auscultation of the equine athlete in the context of pre-exercise screening for cardiac adverse event and exercise-associated sudden death prevention. Clinical Relevance: Cardiac adverse events and exercise-associated deaths are problems that affect horses' health, riders' safety, and the public perception of welfare during equestrian sports. Screening before participation in sports has helped decrease the incidence of sudden death in humans. We believe auscultation may be a high-yield, low-cost strategy to improve equine welfare and a key component of a prevention program for exercise-associated sudden death in equine athletes. What we describe here highlights that an irregularly irregular rhythm is atrial fibrillation until proven otherwise and is the main target of pre-exercise auscultation. Concerning murmurs are the second target; multiple examples of audio, video, and electrocardiograms are shown.
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Solís et al. (2026) conducted a review in Cardiac adverse events and exercise-associated sudden death in equine athletes. Pre-exercise cardiac auscultation was evaluated. Pre-exercise cardiac auscultation in equine athletes is described as a low-cost screening strategy targeting atrial fibrillation and concerning murmurs to prevent exercise-associated sudden death.
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