The most commonly encountered cardiac disease in veterinary practice is valvular disease, which accounts for 70 to 75 per cent of cardiac diseases. Small dog breeds, over 5 years of age, such as Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Cocker Spaniels, Pomeranians, Daschunds, Chihuahuas, and mixed breeds, are predisposed to mitral valve disease. The current study aimed toassess right-heart  echocardiographic indices in dogs with mitral valve diseases. The right heart indices like right atrial and right ventricular dimensions, fractional area change, tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion, transtricuspid velocities, Tei index, etc. were measured in 12 clinically healthy and 17 dogs with mitral valve disease. SPSS software was used to perform statistical analysis on the collected data.2-D and M-mode echocardiography showed a significant increase in right atrial dimensions in diastole (RA-mind) and TAPSE. Continuous wave Doppler revealed a substantial increase in systolic pulmonary artery and mean pulmonary artery pressure in 16.64 percent of cases. No significant changes were reported in other parameters. Although TDI was superior to conventional Doppler in grading systolic dysfunction, both techniques were ambiguous in identifying systolic dysfunction due to a hyperdynamic ventricular wall in mitral valve disease, and conventional Doppler was unable to grade mild and moderate failure due to the pseudonormalization phenomenon in diastolic dysfunction.

Highlights

• Mitral valve disease (MVD), constitutes 70-75% of cardiac diseases in veterinary practice, with a predisposition in small dog breeds over 5 years old.
• Thoracic radiography revealed a significant difference in the VHS between normal and MVD dogs, indicating cardiac enlargement.