Utility of focused cardiac ultrasonography training in veterinary students to differentiate stages of subclinical myxomatous mitral valve disease in dogs

Abstract

Background: Differentiation of the subclinical phases of myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) in dogs relies heavily on echocardiography. Focused cardiac ultrasonography (FCU) is a point-of-care technique that can assess heart size. Hypothesis/Objectives: Veterinary students trained in FCU can differentiate dogs with subclinical MMVD based on left ventricular (LV) and left atrial (LA) dimensions. Animals: Forty-eight dogs with subclinical MMVD. Methods: Veterinary students were trained to measure LV dimension and LA-to-aortic root dimension ratio (LA : Ao) using FCU. Dogs were categorized into 2 cohorts based on whether or not the LV normalized internal diastolic dimension was ≥1.7 and LA : Ao was ≥1.6. Agreement between FCU and echocardiographic studies performed by cardiologists was evaluated. Results: One-hundred and forty-six FCU examinations were performed by 58 veterinary students on 48 dogs. Overall agreement between students and cardiologists was moderate (Fleiss' kappa, 0.54; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.39-0.69; P