The use of bisoprolol in comprehensive treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs

Dilated cardiomyopathy is a chronic progressive heart disease leading to the death of the animal. To provide timely and effective medical assistance to dogs suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, early diagnosis is essential. It allows identifying sick animals before the development of cardiac decompensation and clinical manifestations of congestive heart failure. There are two major diagnostic methods for dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs at the symptomless stage: echocardiography and 24-hour Holter monitoring. If untreated, this pathology progresses over time. For this reason, the clinicians are faced with a challenge of enhancing the quality of an animal’s life and prolonging it. Given this, we set the objective of studying the effects of the beta-blocker Bisoprolol (Concor) on myocardial conduction and contractility in dogs with dilated cardiomyopathy and comparing tolerance to this drug taken by dogs in various initial dosages with their therapeutic efficacy. The study object was beta-blocker Bisoprolol (Concor). The experiments were performed on dogs, age 2–5 years, weight 15-30 kg, with dilated cardiomyopathy in the developed chronic Stage С Index B heart failure stage. All dogs underwent comprehensive clinical examinations, tonography, echocardiography, and Holter monitoring. It was established that usage of Bisoprolol (dosage 0.25 mg/kg) led to blood pressure decrease, reduced ejection fraction, shortening fraction, and deterioration of the general condition of sick dogs. We have proved therapeutic efficacy and good tolerance of Bisoprolol in the initial dosage of 0.15 mg/kg taken by dogs every 12 hours.