Common ventricle with separate pulmonary outflow chamber in a horse.
On the basis of clinical and laboratory examinations, a ventricular septal defect or a variant of the tetralogy of Fallot was suspected in a 3-year-old filly with a history of poor growth rate and exercise intolerance. The filly was euthanatized and found to have a 3-chambered heart (cor triloculare biatriatum). The heart had 2 normally formed atria and a large common ventricle into which the right and left atrioventricular orifices opened and from which the aorta arose. There was a small separate chamber from which the pulmonary trunk originated. This chamber communicated with the common ventricle through a large oval opening along the dorsal border of the displaced, interventricular septum.
D000818:Animals; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization / Q000662:veterinary; D005260:Female; D006326:Heart Auscultation / Q000662:veterinary; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000002:abnormalities*; D006734:Horse Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006736:Horses; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular