TY - JOUR

T1 - Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation in Horses

T2 - Pathophysiology, Diagnostics and Clinical Aspects

AU - Kjeldsen, Sofie Troest

AU - Nissen, Sarah Dalgas

AU - Buhl, Rikke

AU - Hopster-Iversen, Charlotte

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in horses causing poor performance. As in humans, the condition can be intermittent in nature, known as paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (pAF). This review covers the literature relating to pAF in horses and includes references to the human literature to compare pathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnostic tools and treatment. The arrhythmia is diagnosed by auscultation and electrocardiography (ECG), and clinical signs can vary from sudden loss of racing performance to reduced fitness or no signs at all. If left untreated, pAF may promote electrical, functional and structural remodeling of the myocardium, thus creating a substrate that is able to maintain the arrhythmia, which over time may progress into permanent AF. Long-term ECG monitoring is essential for diagnosing the condition and fully understanding the duration and frequency of pAF episodes. The potential to adapt human cardiac monitoring systems and computational ECG analysis is therefore of interest and may benefit future diagnostic tools in equine medicine.

AB - Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in horses causing poor performance. As in humans, the condition can be intermittent in nature, known as paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (pAF). This review covers the literature relating to pAF in horses and includes references to the human literature to compare pathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnostic tools and treatment. The arrhythmia is diagnosed by auscultation and electrocardiography (ECG), and clinical signs can vary from sudden loss of racing performance to reduced fitness or no signs at all. If left untreated, pAF may promote electrical, functional and structural remodeling of the myocardium, thus creating a substrate that is able to maintain the arrhythmia, which over time may progress into permanent AF. Long-term ECG monitoring is essential for diagnosing the condition and fully understanding the duration and frequency of pAF episodes. The potential to adapt human cardiac monitoring systems and computational ECG analysis is therefore of interest and may benefit future diagnostic tools in equine medicine.

KW - Arrhythmia

KW - Electrocardiogram

KW - Equine cardiology

KW - Implantable loop recorder

KW - Long-term monitoring device

KW - Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation

KW - Poor performance

U2 - 10.3390/ani12060698

DO - 10.3390/ani12060698

M3 - Review

C2 - 35327097

AN - SCOPUS:85126009270

VL - 12

JO - Animals

JF - Animals

SN - 2076-2615

IS - 6

M1 - 698

ER -