SIG: Equine Cardiology

This Special Interest Group in Equine Cardiology brings together clinicians and researchers at the forefront of cardiac disease in horses, featuring two scientific abstracts followed by a focused, multi-institutional deep-dive into Mitral Valve Prolapse (MVP).

The session opens with two abstract presentations. The first, presented by Fe ter Woort (Equine Sports Medicine Practice, Belgium), reports on the external validation of a deep learning algorithm for detection of atrial fibrillation and paroxysmal atrial fibrillation in exercising racehorse ECGs. The second abstract, presented by Freya Stein (University of Minnesota), will present descriptive findings of healthy elite horses with valvular abnormalities that do not appear to decrease cardiac function or performance.

The remainder of the session is dedicated to Mitral Valve Prolapse — a condition for which no consensus currently exists in equine medicine. Chaired by Gunther van Loon (Ghent University), this segment aims to bring the equine cardiology community together to share data, cases, and perspectives, with the goal of stimulating open discussion about how we each approach MVP in clinical practice and research — and how we might move forward collectively toward a shared definition and framework.

A panel of international experts will contribute from multiple angles:

• MVP in people: Current knowledge in human medicine as a comparative framework, presented by Katharyn Mitchell and Elizabeth Williams Louie (Cornell University)


• MVP in horses – Survey results: Current practices, presented by Jonna Gimmi and Colin Schwarzwald (University of Zurich)


• MVP in horses –
  
  Case presentation:  Clinical case presentation, presented by Claire Underwood (University of Pennsylvania)


• MVP in horses – Echocardiographic quantification of mitral valve billowing in horses and its relation to mitral regurgitation severity, presented by Jonna Gimmi and Colin Schwarzwald (University of Zurich)


• MVP in horses – Mitral valve prolapse is not associated with valve leaflet size and chordae tendineae length in horses, presented by Elizabeth Williams Louie (Cornell University)


• MVP in horses – Magnesium and MVP: Serum ionized magnesium and MVP in horses with mitral valve regurgitation, presented by Marie Demeyere (Ghent University)