The use of ACE inhibitors in dogs with heart disease

✍ Scribed by Henrik D. Pedersen; Jens Häggström; Clarence Kvart

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 132 KB
• Volume: 1
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1760-2734
• DOI: 10.1016/s1760-2734(06)70024-8

✦ Synopsis

Journal of Veterinary Cardiology includes two articles dealing with the use of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in small animals. Prompted by that, we would like to take the opportunity to briefly discuss when to use angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in the two most common canine heart diseases. But first, three cheers for the Journal of Veterinary Cardiology! We hope that it will be well received and that it will flourish in the years to come. The birth of the journal seems to be a suitable culmination of an active decade for veterinary cardiology, a decade which is characterized especially by the many large multicenter studies that were started to investigate the effects of different ACE inhibitors.

In dogs with moderate to severe congestive heart failure (CHF), enalapril was shown to reduce clinical signs (the COVE' and IMPROVE2 studies) and to prolong longevity when added to conventional therapy, i.e. diuretics with or without digoxin (the LIVE ~t u d y ) . ~

In the BENCH study, published in this issue of the Journal of Veterinary Cardiology, benazepril is shown to have an equally significant effect on longevity in a large series of dogs with C H F (70% of which were on different drugs at the trial tart).^ It is important to note that a broader spectrum of dogsnot only dogs with moderate to severe C H Fwere included in the