Feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: an echocardiographic approach

Feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a primary myocardial disease. Feline HCM is a disease of the ventricular myocardium characterised by mild-to-severe primary concentric hypertrophy. The disease has been attributed to hereditary factors in certain breeds and causal mutations have been discovered in the Maine coon and ragdoll breeds. However, the disease is still a challenge for clinicians because of the difficulty of early diagnosis and the risk of the sudden death of the afflicted animals. Echocardiography is the non-invasive tool of choice for the diagnosis of cardiac diseases in cats. New echocardiographic techniques such as tissue Doppler imaging (2-dimensional colour, colour M-mode, pulsed-wave mode), strain, and strain rate have proven to be effective in the early diagnosis of myocardial dysfunction, even in the absence of hypertrophy in conventional echocardiography. The aim of this review is to provide an update on information regarding the echocardiographic diagnosis of the disease.