AGE VARIANCE OF LEFT-VENTRICULAR DIAMETERS IN DOGS WITH CARDIAC DISEASE

Ventricular size increases during growth, but often also due to cardia c disease. This study aims to describe left ventricular dimension inte rrelations using a representation that is applicable to patients with cardiac disease, and subsequently to statistically study possible age and gender influences in a large population. in retrospect we analyzed echocardiographically obtained diameters of the left ventricle in 442 dogs of various breeds with congenital or acquired heart disease. Als o, we compared our findings with published data on humans and other an imals. Multivariate regression analysis was applied to assess possible influences of age and gender. A high correlation was found for end-sy stolic diameter (ESD) versus end-diastolic diameter (EDD): ESD (cm) = -1.01 cm + 0.93.EDD (cm) with r = 0.94 p <.00001. Next, these patients were categorized into three age groups (divisions at 3 and 7 years). We detected a slight age dependent effect: the regression coefficients for the younger group differed from the two older groups. No signific ant gender-related influence,uas detected. The observation of a high c orrelation for the ESD versus EDD relationship could be confirmed by r eanalysis of published data on normal individuals and human patients. The newly described relationship between ESD and EDD applies ill parti cular to cardiac patients. This is a relevant finding, because clinica lly important indices of ventricular performance generally depend on E SD, EDD or both. Thus, ESD versus EDD offers a convenient framework fo r studies on cardiac volume regulation and performance in the cardiopa thological spectrum, while permitting incorporation of modulating effe cts related to age.