title: Associations between 'valentine' heart shape, atrial enlargement and cardiomyopathy in cats.
abstract: 'Valentine' heart shape is a common qualifier used in veterinary radiology to describe a cardiac silhouette with focal enlargement at the level of the base of the heart in feline patients. Anecdotally, this sign has been thought to be related to biatrial enlargement and also to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). However, to our knowledge, there has been no study performed to assess the association between cardiac chamber enlargement and cardiac disease with the 'valentine'-shaped heart. The aim of this study was to verify the association between the 'valentine' heart shape observed in ventrodorsal thoracic radiographs and the presence of singular or combined cardiac chamber enlargement, and also the presence and type of cardiomyopathy (CM) in cats. A search of the database of the Small Animal Veterinary Hospital of the University of Florida for cats with a radiology report of thoracic radiographs that contained the words 'valentine' and 'biatrial', and echocardiography performed within 1 week, was undertaken; 41 cases met the inclusion criteria. Eighty-two percent of the cats of the study sample had some form of CM. The 'valentine' heart shape was associated with biatrial enlargement in 41% of the patients in our study sample that had some form of CM and just 8% of cases diagnosed with HCM, suggesting that the 'valentine' heart shape has a low association with HCM or biatrial enlargement; however, it should be considered a sign of feline CM.
authors.affiliation: Small Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA mdwinter@ufl.edu.
authors.forename: Matthew D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Winter
authors.affiliation: Small Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Robson F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Giglio
authors.affiliation: Small Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Clifford R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Berry
authors.affiliation: Murdoch University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Reese
authors.affiliation: Veterinary Heart Care, Virginia Beach, VA, USA.
authors.forename: Herbert W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Maisenbacher
authors.affiliation: Large Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Jorge A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Hernandez
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006332:Cardiomegaly / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000662:veterinary*; D002312:Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D002371:Cat Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology*; D002415:Cats; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000662:veterinary*; D006325:Heart Atria / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D012016:Reference Values