Ambulatory Electrocardiographic Evaluation of Clinically Normal Adult Boxers

Objective: To determine the prevalence of ventricular arrhythmias in clinically normal adult Boxers.

Design: Prospective cross-sectional study.

Animals: 301 Boxers (181 females and 120 males) > 1 year old with echocardiographically normal systolic function and no history of syncope or congestive heart failure.

Procedures: Physical examination, which included echocardiography, was performed on all dogs. A 24-hour ambulatory ECG was performed on each dog, and results were evaluated to assess ventricular arrhythmias. Statistical evaluation was performed to determine correlations between the total number of ventricular premature complexes (VPCs)/24 h, grade of ventricular arrhythmia, and age of the dogs.

Results: Age of dogs ranged from 1 to 16 years (median, 4 years). Number of VPCs/24 h in each dog ranged from 0 to 62,622 (median, 6 VPCs/24 h). Grade of arrhythmias ranged from 0 to 3 (median, 1). Age was correlated significantly with number of VPCs/24 h (r = 0.43) and with grade of arrhythmia (r = 0.37). Number of VPCs/24 h was significantly correlated with grade of arrhythmia (r = 0.82).

Conclusions And Clinical Relevance: Clinically normal adult Boxers generally had < 91 VPCs/24 h and an arrhythmia grade < 2. Boxers with > 91 VPCs/24 h were uncommon and may have represented dogs with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy or other disease processes that could have resulted in the development of ventricular arrhythmias.