Congenital coronary-pulmonary arterial shunt in a German shepherd dog: Diagnosis and surgical correction

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Abstract

Background

A 10 week-old intact female German shepherd dog was examined because of a heart murmur.

Methods

An echocardiogram revealed an extracardiac left-to-right shunt. An angiogram identified shunting between the aorta and the pulmonary artery in an unusual location.

Results

Thoracotomy was performed to better identify and correct the lesion; a tubular shunt between the left coronary artery and the pulmonary artery was found and ligated in a closed-heart procedure. The murmur resolved immediately upon ligation and the dog’s heart size normalized over a period of several months after surgery.

Conclusion

In the dog, surgical correction of a coronary artery-pulmonary artery shunt can be performed without complications and can be associated with reversal of cardiac remodeling.

Section snippets

Discussion

Coronary shunts are rare congenital or acquired coronary malformations, which can originate from one of the main coronary arteries and connect to a cardiac chamber (coronary-cameral shunt) or a great vessel (coronary arteriovenous shunt), bypassing the normal coronary capillary network. Most commonly, these conditions are described as coronary arterial-venous shunts (CAVS) and are considered central arteriovenous malformations, in contrast to peripheral arteriovenous shunts of the limbs or

Conflict of interest

No conflict of interest declared.

References (25)

Cited by (9)

  • Evaluation of non-ECG and ECG-gated computed tomographic angiography for three-dimensional printing of anomalous coronary arteries in dogs with pulmonic stenosis

    2019, Journal of Veterinary Cardiology
    Citation Excerpt :

    Additional rare congenital and acquired coronary artery abnormalities have been reported in dogs [8–10]. Abnormal congenital coronary connections include a right coronary artery to right atrium fistula [11] and a left coronary artery to pulmonary artery shunt [12]. Variations in the path or branching pattern of the coronary arteries have been described, but in the absence of pulmonic stenosis or when no prepulmonic coronary artery course is present, these variations are suspected to be of no clinical significance and may represent inconsequential anatomic variations.

  • Coronary arteriovenous malformation in a dog with a complex arrhythmia and hypothyroidism

    2019, Journal of Veterinary Cardiology
    Citation Excerpt :

    In humans, CAFs are most commonly single [16,17], although multiple CAFs have been reported [16,18], and there are some reports that are more consistent with CAVM in the true sense of the definition [11,19,20]. In dogs, reports consist of a single coronary to pulmonary fistula in a German shepherd dog [21] and multiple coronary to pulmonary fistulae in an English bulldog [22]. An observation was also made by Scansen [22] that coronary to pulmonary fistulas are more often seen in association with larger thoracic arteriovenous malformations.

  • Use of an Amplatz Canine Ductal Occluder (ACDO) device to close an acquired aortopulmonary fistula with a hybrid approach in a dog

    2016, Journal of Veterinary Cardiology
    Citation Excerpt :

    Pelosi et al [4]. have described, in another case report, the closure by surgical ligation, of a congenital aortopulmonary fistula in a dog [4]. Nakata et al. reported a transarterial coil embolization of an abdominal aortocaval fistula in a dog [25].

  • Single left coronary ostium and an anomalous prepulmonic right coronary artery in 2 dogs with congenital pulmonary valve stenosis

    2013, Journal of Veterinary Cardiology
    Citation Excerpt :

    Compared to humans, reports of congenital CA anomalies in the dog are sparse, likely because of lack of indications for imaging the CAs. Reported congenital CA anomalies in the dog include a coronary-pulmonary arterial shunt in a young German shepherd dog with a continuous heart murmur,11 an anomalous origin of the left CA from the PA in a 2-year-old miniature poodle that died suddenly,12 and the more frequently recognized single right coronary ostium with an anomalous prepulmonic left CA first reported in 1959 in a necropsy study of an asymptomatic mongrel dog13 and later recognized in a Keeshond embryo with persistent truncus arteriosus.14 In 1965, Buchanan and Patterson15 fully described this CA anomaly, so-called “type R2A,” contributing to PS that is especially prevalent in the English bulldog.1,3,4,7,16–19

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