A Practical Guide to the New Feline Cardiomyopathy Consensus Statement
Abstract
In a welcome move, the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) has just published a consensus statement providing guidance on the diagnosis, management, and treatment of the cat with cardiomyopathy. Even more encouraging is that nursing guidelines have also been included in this statement. The paper has been released as ‘open access’, so anyone can access these guidelines free of charge online. The consensus statement is important because it provides an updated classification of feline cardiomyopathies, changing emphasis to different phenotypic groups, and adds a staging system, along similar lines as the ACVIM myxomatous mitral valve disease consensus statement first published in 2009 and then updated in 2019. This article provides a summary of the key points made in the consensus statement.
The American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) has just published a consensus statement, providing guidelines for veterinary surgeons to help them manage cases of feline cardiomyopathy (Luis Fuentes et al, 2020). This is great news for veterinary nurses as well, because nursing recommendations have also been included. The guidelines acknowledge that it has been challenging for veterinary surgeons to define and classify feline heart disease, especially when they are frequently presented with a dyspnoeic and/or uncooperative cat. It also accepts that if there is no trained cardiologist available, then skilled techniques such as echocardiography can prove difficult. The new guidelines have changed the way that the disease is classified, but importantly also puts emphasis on a new staging system which can help guide treatment, changing focus to a more practical and clinical approach of the patient. The ACVIM Consensus Statement can be read in full here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jvim.15745.
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