Number of dogs Holtered out of the 100 dogs needed.

DCM Project Recruiting Dogs for Study Right Now!

The holter project is underway and needs participants!

Needed: 100 Deerhounds living in the U.S. ages 4 years and up with no signs or diagnoses of heart disease.

We are in the thick of this phase of our DCM research, and it is already clear that we are going to learn a ton from this study. We encourage everyone with a qualifying dog to take part!

Please contact us to sign your dog(s) (multiple dogs from a household are welcome) up!

What You Need to Do for the Study

You will need to shave three small areas on your dog’s chest and do the monitoring in the time you are given (~1 week/dog).

When you are done, you will need to promptly ship the box to the next participant and be prepared to spend ~$60-120 to ship the box using the carrier they request.

And when your dog passes away, no matter what the cause, the study needs some slides from your dog’s heart tissue (a procedure a regular vet can do if you are not having your dog necropsied).

What you need to supply:

A smartphone or tablet.
Hand sanitizer.
Baking soda.
Vegetable oil.

The more dogs we do, the more we’ll learn – please contact us to sign up your dogs!

Holtering does not bother the dogs! Here are three quick videos of Deerhounds in vests!

About the Project

The SDCA has embarked on a new phase of our Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) research project that we hope will teach us something about what DCM looks like in Deerhounds and also give us some more information about how ECG diagnostics can be used in our breed.

DCM is a common condition in Deerhounds. According to our latest health survey, in 2011, heart problems, most of which were caused by DCM, were the cause of death for 22% of males and 14% of bitches.

However common DCM is in our breed, we know surprisingly little about it. We do know that it appears to present differently in Deerhounds than it presents in other breeds, such as Doberman Pinschers. But we need to learn more about what those differences are.

To do this, there are three parts to our study:

A Holter study to learn more about the arrhythmias that are present in some Deerhounds and how they relate to DCM in our breed, as well as what role, if any, Holter monitoring can play in diagnosing DCM in our breed.
A study to determine whether Alivecor devices can be used to reliably detect arrhythmias in Deerhounds.
A necropsy study of tissue samples from the study dogs, as well as any other dogs whose owners are willing to send samples to the study.

We are very lucky to be partnering with Meg Sleeper, VMD, Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (cardiology), a cardiologist at the University of Florida, on this project. Here is more information on Dr. Sleeper.

Holter Study

One of the things we’ve noticed and has been confirmed by our colleagues in the United Kingdom, who have been studying Deerhound DCM for several years, is that some Deerhounds with DCM have arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats) and others do not. We really don’t know much more than that, so the first part of our study is to try to learn more about these arrhythmias.

The gold standard for studying heart arrhythmias is the Holter monitor. A Holter monitor is a small, wearable device that keeps track of heart rhythms. They are commonly used in human medicine and are also used by veterinary cardiologists. The beauty of Holters is they can be worn for extended periods of time, thus giving cardiologists a clear picture of the patient’s heart rhythm. Most dogs are monitored for 24 uninterrupted hours. Using Holter monitors is the obvious place to start to learn more about these arrhythmias. So we are embarking on a Holter study.

We need to Holter monitor 100 Deerhounds over the next year or so. Monitoring is easy, as the monitor is protected by a vest that keeps it in place. The dog can do its normal activities, the only exception being the monitor cannot get wet, the dog can’t use a dog door, and we can’t have any dogs pulling on the vest.

We hope that studying 100 dogs will shed some light on these arrhythmias. We need to do 100 dogs to get a big enough sample, so we need people to sign up to have their dogs monitored.

Here is the full Holter/Necropsy study proposal.

Here is more information on doing a Holter study.

Please sign up your dog! Please contact us to sign up.

Alivecor Study

Holter monitors are great, but they are expensive, from the machines to the reports, and are mostly only accessible through veterinary cardiologists. There is now a machine called the Alivecor Kardiamobile that allows people to monitor their heart beat at home using their smartphone or tablet and send the results to their cardiologist. Veterinary cardiologists also use them on established patients so pet owners can send in reports on their animals.

We want to see whether Deerhound owners can use the Alivecor to accurately detect heart arrhythmias on their Deerhounds.

Because the Holter monitor is the established gold standard to find heart arrhythmias, the best time to test another device that will be used to detect arrhythmias is when you are doing a Holter study. So that is why we are running both studies at the same time.

Here is the full Alivecor proposal.

Please note: At this time we are only doing Alivecor sessions combined with a Holter session.

Please sign up your dog! Please contact us to sign up!

Necropsy Study

Finally, we are asking study participants and anyone else whose Deerhound has died to help us by:

Having your regular vet (or the pathologist, if you are having your dog necropsied) take some tissue samples when your dog passes away, no matter what the cause. The study would like to examine the heart tissue of dogs who pass away who had confirmed cases of DCM to see if it provides any clues to the causes of this disease in Deerhounds. We are also asking owners of dogs diagnosed with DCM that pass away, no matter what the cause (the dog does not need to die from the DCM) if they will ask their regular veterinarian or pathologist to collect some small tissue samples. The club can reimburse you for some of those expenses.
Sharing health records and diagnostic test results for dogs affected by DCM. All you need to do is email your dog’s records to us.

Here is the full Holter/Necropsy study proposal.

Here are the sample collection instructions.

Please contact us if you have any questions.

Dogs Diagnosed with Heart Disease or Heart Defects

Do you have a dog affected by a heart condition? Even though your dog cannot be part of the study, we still can learn a lot by Holtering it. Therefore, we are offering everyone whose Deerhound has been diagnosed with any kind of heart disease or heart defect one free Holter. All you have to do is share your dog’s health records and diagnostics with us. If you want to do more than one Holter, subsequent Holters will be $200. Holter reports will be given to you to share with your dog’s cardiologist. Contact us for more information.