Arrhythmogenesis Factors in obese dogs

• Grant number: 23/17644-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2024
• End date: May 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Animal Clinics and Surgery
• Principal Investigator: Jaislane Bastos Braz
• Grantee: Lívia Alves dos Santos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Obesity is the nutritional disorder that most affects pet dogs, being characterized by the excessive deposition of adipose tissue in the body. Its prevalence occurs due to domestic animals sedentary lifestyle and high-calorie foods intake immoderately. Among the pathologies caused by excess weight may be mentioned cardiac changes, such as left and right ventricular hypertrophy and arrhythmias, besides respiratory disorders, such as increased respiratory rate, decreased tidal volume and pulmonary hypertension. These afections influence a lot domestic animals mortality risk. For this reason, the present study proposes to investigate the influence of obesity in triggering arrhythmogenesis factors in dogs, because the metabolic and systemic imbalances caused by this condition. To the research, it is going to measure the cardiac repolarization variables QT, QTc, TpTe and TpTe/QT performing by electrocardiogram (ECG) of obese and healthy patients (control group).Echocardiographic evaluation will be performed to rule out heart disease.Therefore, the values obtained will be statistically analyzed and compared with the control group. A pilot study was carried out on five obese animals, originated from an ongoing master's project, previously approved by the Animal Experimentation Ethics Committee, whose initial results demonstrated an increase in QTc and TpTe/QT and a decrease in TpTe when the averages were compared with normal reference values from the literature for the species. The complete study may provide elucidation if the found changes are significant.