Possibilities of applying pharmacological stress testing in assessment of heart functional capacity in dogs

Abstract

Systolic and diastolic heart functions, evaluated using echocardiography, do not reflect the functional capacity of the patient and they cannot explain the occurrence of symptoms during a certain degree of activity. Evaluation of the functional capacity is an integral part of cardiological examinations in human medicine. Functional examinations of the heart can be carried out using the body burden test or pharmacologically. Investigations carried out so far into canine cardiology have not contributed to the clinical implementation of functional heart examinations in dogs. Pharmacological stress testing is an optimal way to perform a functional heart examination in dogs. Since it reflects the effects of moderate physical activity, dobutamine has been recommended as the medicine of choice for provoking a pharmacological stress test. This work presents a review of the results of the most important investigations, as well as our own investigations, of the application of the dobutamine stress test (DST) in dogs, and the problems in investigations so far have been considered and future directions for DST investigations pointed out. .

Keywords

• functional heart examination
• dobutamine stress test
• dog