Cardiomyopathies in Animals

Abstract

A wide variety of animal models in cardiomyopathy have been established for the discovery of pathophysiological mechanisms, diagnosis, and treatment of human myocardial disease. Experimentally, several species including rodents, rabbit, canine, pig, and sheep have been involved in the fundamental research in medical field. However, knowledge about naturally occurring myocardial disease in animals is limited in the veterinary medicine. Among small and large animals that develop myocardial disease, to the best of authors' knowledge, naturally occurring cardiomyopathy in canine and feline is commonly encountered in veterinary clinical setting. Their pathophysiology is not fully described; specific pathophysiology is documented in both species, which resembles those of humans. These conditions are hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in feline and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in canine. Each has distinct etiology and pathophysiology. In order to translate new findings from naturally occurring cardiomyopathies in small and large animals into medical applications, knowledge gained through animals with cardiomyopathies becomes a necessary approach. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the overview of findings on small and large animals with naturally occurring cardiomyopathies already investigated.