Browsing by Author "Camacho, Paula"
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- Comparison of the mitral valve morphologies of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and dogs of other breeds using 3D transthoracic echocardiographyMenciotti, Giulio; Borgarelli, Michele; Aherne, Michael; Camacho, Paula; Haggstrom, Jens; Ljungvall, Ingrid; Lahmers, Sunshine M.; Abbott, Jonathan A. (Wiley, 2018-09-01)Background: Myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) is more prevalent in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (CKCSs) compared to dogs of other breeds at a given age. Abnormal valvular stress is thought to contribute to the development and progression of MMVD, and a relationship exists between mitral valve (MV) morphology and stress acting on the valve. Objectives: To determine whether the MV morphology of healthy adult CKCSs differs from the morphology of healthy adult dogs of other breeds determined by RT-3DTTE. Animals: Thirty-five healthy CKCSs and 41 healthy dogs of other breeds. Methods: Prospective cross-sectional study. Dogs underwent physical examination, conventional echocardiography, and RT-3DTTE. RT–3DTTE datasets were analyzed using dedicated software for MV morphologic analysis. Morphologic variables were compared between CKCSs and dogs of other breeds. Results: The MV of healthy CKCSs had a smaller annulus height (0.46 ± 0.11 vs. 0.56 ± 0.17; P =.0021), tenting height (0.26 ± 0.12 vs. 0.42 ± 0.18; P <.001), tenting area (0.42 ± 0.15 vs. 0.79 ± 0.34; P <.001), normalized tenting volume (0.09 [0.05–0.13] vs. 0.14 [0.10–0.20]; P <.001), and normalized area of the posterior leaflet (0.57 ± 0.15 vs. 0.66 ± 0.18; P =.016) compared to healthy dogs of other breeds; this results in CKCSs having a flatter MV with reduced tenting, compared to the MV of other breeds. Conclusions and Clinical Importance: These morphologic features could confer a mechanical disadvantage and play a role in the predisposition of CKCSs to the early development of MMVD.
- Large Mammalian Animal Models of Heart DiseaseCamacho, Paula; Fan, Huimin; Liu, Zhongmin; He, Jia-Qiang (MDPI, 2016-10-05)Due to the biological complexity of the cardiovascular system, the animal model is an urgent pre-clinical need to advance our knowledge of cardiovascular disease and to explore new drugs to repair the damaged heart. Ideally, a model system should be inexpensive, easily manipulated, reproducible, a biological representative of human disease, and ethically sound. Although a larger animal model is more expensive and difficult to manipulate, its genetic, structural, functional, and even disease similarities to humans make it an ideal model to first consider. This review presents the commonly-used large animals—dog, sheep, pig, and non-human primates—while the less-used other large animals—cows, horses—are excluded. The review attempts to introduce unique points for each species regarding its biological property, degrees of susceptibility to develop certain types of heart diseases, and methodology of induced conditions. For example, dogs barely develop myocardial infarction, while dilated cardiomyopathy is developed quite often. Based on the similarities of each species to the human, the model selection may first consider non-human primates—pig, sheep, then dog—but it also depends on other factors, for example, purposes, funding, ethics, and policy. We hope this review can serve as a basic outline of large animal models for cardiovascular researchers and clinicians.