bird ECG interpretation

Re: bird ECG interpretation

J G Wray — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 16:13:47 GMT

Custody battle rages over Coco the African grey parrot

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/essex/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_9127000/9127228.stm

Coco's heartbroken

Re: bird ECG interpretation

Marie Kubiak — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 12:19:26 GMT

hi,

thanks for the reply.

Sinus arrhythmia is not something I have seen in the limited number of bird ECGs I have done. The pauses are audible on auscultation and this is very abnormal in birds.

The negative QRS complex is normal but the deflection isn't seen on other textbook traces I have looked at and it seems repeatable through the trace so I am unsure what is going on! Most of us bird/exotic vets do very little cardiology so there isn't much expert advice from that side. The pericardial effusion DDx from what I can find in bird papers are pericarditis, CHF and hypoproteinaemia but all is very vague.

It originally came in for diarrhoea last year and the arrhythmia was an incidental finding on auscultation. I was concerned that over the last 12 months the arrhythmia has become more pronounced with more frequent and longer pauses and it is mildly dyspnoeic after handling now so they finally allowed investigation.

I'll talk to them about the troponin,

thanks again, Marie

Re: bird ECG interpretation

Mike Martin — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 09:54:43 GMT

From basic principles with no knowledge of birds...

Lead 1 is the better quality tracing to read here. There is a sinus rhythm that mimics an exaggerated respiratory sinus arrhythmia in dogs - this may be abnormal for a bird? So the pauses could be termed sinus arrest - but this may not be clinically relevant in the absence of sycnope. The QRS configuration seems negative (normal for some species) with a large positive T wave. There then is a weird deflection after that (in leads 2 & 3 but not 1), that does not mimic anything 'cardiac' - so is this artifact? So if I was to research this sort of case, I'd Google normal ECG tracings for birds, find out what is published and compare to that first. Do you have any normal papers/books? Do you have a specialist forum you can post on?

If there is a potential for ischaemic myocardial disease (in view of the athersclerosis), then troponin would be worth running. Ischaemia can also be difficult to appreciate on echo if this it not something familiar to you.

The pericardial effusion is odd, what are the differentials for this in birds, in the absence of structural heart disease?

Coming back to the ECG and basic principles, I'd assume the ECG is secondary to whatever else is going on and not worry about the arrhythmia per se. If the bird was in for a health check - does that mean it has or does not have symptoms?

Good luck.

Re: bird ECG interpretation

Marie Kubiak — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 19:44:26 GMT

Ha ha! Do they do those in his size then?

Re: bird ECG interpretation

Michael Woodhouse — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 18:37:06 GMT

A teeny, tiny ICD?