Sonopath Forum

Kitten w/loud murmur

This is a kitten at the shelter I work at, that is in “hospice foster” for a stunningly loud heart murmur. He’s done well for several months now, and is surprisingly active.

9 mo. old MN cat
5-6/6 holosystolic murmur, loudest on L
palpable thrill over wide area on L side thorax
foster O can see heart “pounding” through his chest after playing

Bear with me, I haven’t done echo training (yet) but I’ve watched the video. A rep brought an US in for the shelter to look at today and I couldn’t resist putting the probe on this cat.

What is going on in this L ventricle ??

Thank you for any input. He’s going to live his life out in foster care, but I’m just curious….

Comments

January 30, 2019 at 10:04 am -

Can’t really say based on the

Can’t really say based on the images here but the LV volume looks maybe excessive just subjective but the LA is fine which is why he isn’t clinical. The ventricular septum looks a bit ragged and given that vsd is the most common cat congenital and a small vsd makes for a loud murmur I would interrogate that area in 4 and 5 chamber long axis and in short axis at 10 o’clock left of the mercedes benz sign but this wouldnt give a LV volume overload but its minimal if at all and likely not an issue. Obviously other congenitals are possible but would need a full SDEP echo to see.

Check out vsd in the clinical search as it will pop up over and over with congential cats:

https://sonopath.com/members/case-studies/search?text=vsd&species=All

4ebersoles

January 30, 2019 at 12:00 pm -

Thank you for the full

Thank you for the full rundown! I am really looking forward to being able to do a full SDEP echo AND send them out. I love looking at the heart on US but can’t identify much.

Thanks for the case too….. I have trouble finding things on the clinical search. I need to explore it more.

Peter

January 30, 2019 at 8:55 pm -

Hi!
I completely agree with

Hi!

I completely agree with Eric

Some additional input

A VSD causes a positiv “dynamic auscultation sign” which meansk if you move your stethoscope from the left side over the sternum to the right side, the murmur will get louder.

Given the loud murmur on the left side and the volume overload that Eric mentioned, I would also look for a PDA (color over pulmonary artery would reveal a continuous flow directed towards the pulmonic valve).

As Eric mentioned, a full echo is certainly necessary. If there’s a PDA, surgery would be straight forward, not difficult and very likely curative.

Regards
Peter