Dietary intervention reduces left atrial enlargement in dogs with early preclinical myxomatous mitral valve disease
Li, Q. et al.
2019
BMC Veterinary Research

This study has evaluated the effect of dietary intervention in early stage myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) through a blinded randomized controlled methodology. A total of 36 dogs were enrolled in this blinded, placebo-controlled study and were tested with an echocardiography at baseline, 3, and 6 months. The cardiac protection blend (CPB) and the control diet (CON) was assigned at random to the dogs. 19 of them had been diagnosed with MMVD and 17 healthy dogs were tested throughout the 6 months’ time mark to determine if a cardiac protection blend (CPB) nutrient blend inclusion in their diet could prevent MMVD.
By performing echocardiography, MMVD-CPB dogs showed a 3% decrease in interactions (P = 0.037, P = 0.005, respectively) at 6 months and changes in LAD and blood pressures (systolic: P = 0.050, diastolic: P = 0.035), demonstrating that CPB diets slow the progression of early MMVD in dogs.

On the other hand, MMVD-CON dogs had a 10% increase in the left atrial diameter (LAD) and left atrial to aortic root ratio (LA/Ao). No positive correlation was found in these dogs. There were no changes amongst the healthy dogs with CPB and COD diets.