Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA.
Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA.
J Vet Cardiol. 2021 Feb;33:1-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jvc.2020.10.001. Epub 2020 Oct 25.
Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a common acquired cardiac disease in large breed dogs with a high prevalence in Doberman pinschers. It is characterized histologically by attenuated wavy fibers and fatty infiltration with degeneration. The phenotypic appearance of DCM includes ventricular dilation with systolic dysfunction and ventricular arrhythmias. These changes can be caused by other etiologies, including infectious, toxic, metabolic, and nutritional deficiencies. Chagas disease is the result of an infection with the protozoal parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, transmitted by an insect vector. Histopathology of the myocardium is characterized by inflammation, fibrosis, and pseudocysts containing T. cruzi amastigotes. Differentiating idiopathic DCM from infectious myocarditis can be challenging when the clinical presentation and diagnostic test results are similar in affected dogs. We present thoracic radiographs, echocardiography, and post-mortem histopathology images obtained from two Doberman pinschers with similar signalment, clinical presentation, and electrocardiographic and echocardiographic appearance but with different appearing radiographs and different etiologies for their heart disease, one with idiopathic DCM and one with myocarditis attributed to Chagas disease, to highlight the value of considering alternative etiologies for DCM to guide additional clinical evaluation and owner counseling.
特发性扩张型心肌病（DCM）是大型犬种常见的获得性心脏病，在杜宾犬中发病率较高。其组织学特征为波纹状纤维减弱和脂肪浸润伴变性。DCM 的表型表现包括心室扩张伴收缩功能障碍和室性心律失常。这些变化可能由其他病因引起，包括感染、中毒、代谢和营养缺乏。恰加斯病是由寄生虫原虫克氏锥虫感染引起的，通过昆虫媒介传播。心肌组织病理学的特征是炎症、纤维化和含有克氏锥虫无鞭毛体的假囊肿。当受影响的狗的临床表现和诊断测试结果相似时，区分特发性 DCM 与感染性心肌炎具有挑战性。我们展示了来自两只杜宾犬的胸部 X 光片、超声心动图和死后组织病理学图像，这两只狗具有相似的特征、临床表现和心电图及超声心动图表现，但 X 光片表现不同，心脏病的病因也不同，一只是特发性 DCM，另一只是归因于恰加斯病的心肌炎，以强调考虑 DCM 的其他病因对指导额外的临床评估和主人咨询的重要性。
