Page 132 - Problem-Based Feline Medicine

PART 3

Cat with signs of heart disease

9. The cat with abnormal heart sounds

and/or an enlarged heart

Luis A H Braz-Ruivo and Kathy A Arrington

KEY SIGNS
● Heart murmur.
● Gallop rhythm.
● Muffled, displaced or absent heart sounds.

MECHANISM?
● Murmurs are abnormal heart sounds caused by turbulent blood flow due to valvular stenosis or
insufficiency.
● Innocent or functional murmurs may be present in the absence of morphologic heart disease.
● Gallop rhythms are caused by extra heart sounds and are due to abnormalities in myocardial
relaxation.
● Displaced, absent, or muffled heart sounds are caused by intrathoracic masses, effusions or
structural changes.
● Cardiac enlargement is the result of alterations of blood flow causing volume overload,
myocardial hypertrophy or due to primary myopathic processes.
WHERE?
● Heart.
● Mediastinum.

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