Diagnosis of bovine cardiomyopathy by electrolyte and protein analysis.

The intention of this paper was to describe a reliable method for the diagnosis of cardiomyopathy (CMP) in adult cattle and, in particular, a clear distinction between CMP and inflammatory heart disease (IHD). In a first study we performed a linear discriminant analysis using serum and urine electrolyte concentrations (sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, phosphate, iron, creatinine) of 33 CMP-affected and 35 healthy cattle. This analysis allowed to classify all the animals of both animal groups correctly. In a second study, we examined the clotting reaction of the glutaraldehyde coagulation test (GCT) in cardiomyopathy (n = 49), inflammatory heart diseases (n = 9) and in healthy cows (n = 35). 96% of the CMP-sick and all the control animals showed a clotting time above 10 minutes. In the IHD group, the clotting time was always below 10 minutes. In a third study, we applied the combination of discriminant analysis and GCT to a new set of CMP- (n = 14) and IHD-affected (n = 9) as well as to healthy cattle (n = 15). The classification was correct in 93% of the CMP-sick and in all the IHD-affected and the control animals. The results are discussed.