Cardiovascular variables in eventing and endurance horses over a season

Lorello, Olivia; Ramseyer, Alessandra; Burger, Dominik; Gerber, Vinzenz; Navas de Solis, C. (2019). Cardiovascular variables in eventing and endurance horses over a season. Journal of veterinary cardiology, 21, pp. 67-78. Elsevier 10.1016/j.jvc.2018.08.004

Text cardiovascular variables.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (1MB)

Introduction
The objectives of this study were to describe the changes in clinical cardiovascular examination variables over a competition season in groups of competitive eventing and endurance horses and to compare these findings to non-competitive controls of the same breeds.
Animals
This study included two eventing horses, 11 endurance horses, and 13 eventing and seven endurance control breed-matched horses.
Materials and methods
Cardiovascular examinations were performed before starting the competition season, in the middle and at the peak/end of the competition season. Examinations included auscultation of the heart; M-mode echocardiographic measurements and calculated values; left atrial, pulmonary artery, and aortic diameters; color flow Doppler; exercise electrocardiograms (ECG) measuring peak heart rates and quantifying premature complexes; and 24-h continuous ECGs quantifying premature complexes per hour.
Results
Auscultation, echocardiograms, arrhythmias during exercise, and 24-h continuous ECGs did not change significantly throughout the season (p > 0.05 for all variables).
Conclusion
Cardiovascular examination variables of eventing and endurance horses throughout a competition season are reported here for the first time. Although the present study did not reveal significant changes, data should be interpreted carefully as only a small number of horses were examined.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

1 since deposited on 17 Apr 2019
0 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item