Heart murmurs in healthy cats caused by ventricular outflow tract obstruction.
Researchers evaluated the effect of pressure of the ultrasound transducer against the chest wall of cats during echocardiography on right ventricular blood flow. Sixty-one client-owned, healthy cats with heart murmurs on physical examination. Outflow systolic velocity increased from 1.05 ± 0.26 to 1.94 ± 0.51 m/s during provocative testing. No correlation was found between RV outflow peak velocity and heart rate during provocative testing.
The study suggests that right ventricular outflow tract obstruction and associated heart murmur can be iatrogenically induced in apparently healthy cats by increasing pressure on the right chest wall with an ultrasound probe.
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