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Heart Disease Tests May Help Diagnose Chagas Disease In Dogs

By Kendra Zelachowski | Cardiology Resident

Close up of a kissing bug, a mostly black insect with orange stripes, on the bark of a tree.
A kissing bug. Photo courtesy of Dr. Gabriel Hamer, Texas A&M Department of Entomology

Chagas disease is caused by an infection of the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi — which is transmitted by kissing bug insects — and can cause abnormalities in the heart in some infected dogs. The diagnosis and staging of Chagas disease remains challenging in part because of the difficulties in confirming the diagnosis and the expense of performing the diagnostic tests. Tests can include

  • electrocardiogram (ECG), a recording of the electrical activity of the heart
  • echocardiogram, an ultrasound imaging test of the heart, and
  • cardiac troponin I, a biomarker test for heart damage.

This study aimed to determine if heart disease could be detected with a simplified diagnostic testing plan in dogs living in an area with T. cruzi. Dogs were grouped based on the results of two tests for Chagas disease — positive on both tests, negative on both tests, or discordant/mixed test results).

The results showed that the brief echocardiogram did not distinguish between infection status, while ECG abnormalities and elevated cardiac troponin I were associated with dogs who tested positive on one or both tests for T. cruzi.

These findings indicate an ECG and cardiac troponin I may help identify dogs infected with T. cruzi that have heart disease.

The diagnostic tests used in this study are easily accessible to general practice veterinarians. Abnormal results can prompt further evaluation by a veterinary cardiologist and more frequent monitoring for development of clinical signs.

Surely, Everyone Can Tell When A Dog Recovers After Spinal Cord Injury?

By Suzanne Rosen | Graduate Student
Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences

Unfortunately, the question is not as straightforward as it seems, because there was no agreed-upon definition of recovery of walking. 

Now, a team of veterinary clinicians and technicians at the Texas A&M Small Animal Teaching Hospital has confronted this problem and provided a solution: the 50-step walking test. By making a calculation based on the length of each dog’s legs, our team calculated the distance that would be covered when that dog took 50 steps, a distance that allows them to return to take part in everyday activities, such as toileting, on their own. 

In our study, each owner was given a piece of string of that length and was asked to record when their dog could walk that distance without falling. By recording these outcomes in a large number of dogs we know how long dogs take to recover after different severities of spinal cord injury and in the future we can compare the effect of different approaches to therapy and rehabilitation.

Video Caption:
The video is of a dog who is able to walk 50 steps for the first time after having a thoracolumbar hemilaminectomy (surgery to decompress the spinal cord after a disc herniation). The string next to the dog was measured based on her ulna (arm) length to represent the equivalent of 50 steps for her size.