The Animal Heartbeat

Message our hosts, Kieran and Jose.Our Animal Heartbeat live panel discussion in 2025 covers the topic of artificial intelligence and its use in veterinary and human patients. Our panel review topics such as how to validate AI tools, where AI fits in current medicine and how opportunities for its use are evolving, and should we worry about AI?Our hosts Kieran and Jose are joined by a fantastic panel of guests:Professor Virginia Luis Fuentes; Professor of Veterinary Cardiology, Royal Veterinary CollegeProfessor Anurag Agarwal; Professor of Aeroacoustics, University of CambridgeDr Matthew Shun-Shin; Consultant Cardiologist, Imperial College LondonCatherine Stowell; Imperial College London and founder of The Animal Ultrasound AssociationThis episode was recorded live at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, as part of the 2025 Cambridge Festival of podcasts.

Message our hosts, Kieran and Jose.Join Kieran and Jose as guests of the Portuguese Society of Veterinary Cardiology 2025 Congress, where we reflect on the past two seasons of The Animal Heartbeat, and look forward to the upcoming season 3. Our hosts bring their top lessons from season 1 and 2 guests, including advice from Gerhard Wess, Claudio Bussadori and Josh Stern, in front of a live congress audience.

Message our hosts, Kieran and Jose.This is part 2 of The Animal Heartbeat Christmas Quiz 2024 - is you have not already done so, make sure to listen to part 1 before enjoying this episode!Merry Christmas to all of our listeners! How better to celebrate the holiday season that a Christmas Quiz? Join Jose and Kieran, alongside some guest hosts - hand picked as future stars of the veterinary cardiology world to test our hosts' knowledge and approach to cardiology case material.Jose and Kieran have each secretly set questions for the other. Listen to our hosts face the most public challenge to their knowledge of their careers - five questions of escalating difficulty, from generalist-level, through interested practitioner, to post-Residency knowledge, and finally verging on the impossible. Play along with the quiz using the links below to access the case material. You can even comment on each video with your thoughts before the final answer is revealed!Enjoy the most tense episode of The Animal Heartbeat yet, as Kieran and Jose battle it out for the glory of proving themselves as Specialists in veterinary cardiology. Would they pass a Diploma exam after 10-years as cardiologists? Can their reputation remain intact? Will they still be speaking to each other by the end? Will they keep their jobs? There is only one way to find out...Full video and audio of part 1 (available 25-Dec): https://youtu.be/QwF5fyCs-9oFull video and audio of part 2 (available 26-Dec): https://youtu.be/vUR8jYIFIM0Alternatively, review the media for each question separately on YouTube using the links below whilst you stream the podcast from your usual service.Q1 for Jose (thoracic radiographs): https://youtu.be/FY8OzrlUG_QQ1 for Kieran (thoracic radiographs): https://youtu.be/EPmFc-tME-U Q2 for Jose (ECG): https://youtu.be/nAXM_ywLFeI Q2 for Kieran (echo cine loop): https://youtu.be/1uKv4W-H5oY Q3 for Jose (CT scan): https://youtu.be/vczoj8I9g_gQ3 for Kieran (multi-modal imaging): https://youtu.be/ISeOrjdoWgI Q4 for Jose (angiogram; available 26-Dec): https://youtu.be/0A7y0LIeIR4 Q4 for Kieran (two echo cases; available 26-Dec): https://youtu.be/97eEOrQUdv4 Q5 for Jose (echo images and cine loop; available 26-Dec): https://youtu.be/ZMw-cLSqznIQ5 classification system; available 26-Dec): https://youtu.be/WzRwb-iKtR0Q5 for Kieran (cardiac post-mortem specimen; available 26-Dec): https://youtu.be/lVXIE4r7gsU 

Message our hosts, Kieran and Jose.Merry Christmas to all of our listeners! How better to celebrate the holiday season that a Christmas Quiz? Join Jose and Kieran, alongside some guest hosts - hand picked as future stars of the veterinary cardiology world to test our hosts' knowledge and approach to cardiology case material.Jose and Kieran have each secretly set questions for the other. Listen to our hosts face the most public challenge to their knowledge of their careers - five questions of escalating difficulty, from generalist-level, through interested practitioner, to post-Residency knowledge, and finally verging on the impossible. Play along with the quiz using the links below to access the case material. You can even comment on each video with your thoughts before the final answer is revealed!Enjoy the most tense episode of The Animal Heartbeat yet, as Kieran and Jose battle it out for the glory of proving themselves as Specialists in veterinary cardiology. Would they pass a Diploma exam after 10-years as cardiologists? Can their reputation remain intact? Will they still be speaking to each other by the end? Will they keep their jobs? There is only one way to find out...Full video and audio of part 1 (available 25-Dec): https://youtu.be/QwF5fyCs-9oFull video and audio of part 2 (available 26-Dec): COMING SOON!Alternatively, review the media for each question separately on YouTube using the links below whilst you stream the podcast from your usual service.Q1 for Jose (thoracic radiographs): https://youtu.be/FY8OzrlUG_QQ1 for Kieran (thoracic radiographs): https://youtu.be/EPmFc-tME-UQ2 for Jose (ECG): https://youtu.be/nAXM_ywLFeI Q2 for Kieran (echo cine loop): https://youtu.be/1uKv4W-H5oY Q3 for Jose (CT scan): https://youtu.be/vczoj8I9g_gQ3 for Kieran (multi-modal imaging): https://youtu.be/ISeOrjdoWgI Q4 for Jose (angiogram; available 26-Dec)Q4 for Kieran (two echo cases; available 26-Dec) Q5 for Jose (echo images and cine loop; available 26-Dec)Q5 classification system; available 26-Dec)Q5 for Kieran (cardiac post-mortem specimen; available 26-Dec)

Message our hosts, Kieran and Jose.Hallowe'en is a time for bringing people together and sharing scary stories. Did you ever hear the one about the young, newlywed couple who broke down on the country road by the old psychiatric hospital...? No need to worry - this strictly scientific discussion sees Kieran and Jose share stories of the most terrifying heart conditions that they know of. The recording was plagued by unexplained technical difficulties... Jose was was delayed by a closed motorway, and Kieran was recording from a possibly haunted house. Add to that a specially remixed theme tune, and you can't help be in the Hallowe'en spirit after listening to our final FINAL episode of season 2.

Message our hosts, Kieran and Jose.Mitral valve disease is the most common heart disease diagnosed in dogs. Our understanding of it affects how we manage a wide range of scenarios, from asymptomatic heart murmurs detected at annual vaccination, to patients with respiratory signs or those about to undergo sedation or anaesthesia, or simply receive fluid therapy. Join Professor Michele Borgarelli, from the Virginia Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, as he speaks to Kieran and Jose about an innovative dataset on over 6000 dogs with mitral valve disease, the LOOK-Mitral Registry, and how research like this can inform decision making in the clinic.

Message our hosts, Kieran and Jose.Vets understand that the cornerstone of treatment for congestive heart failure in animals is the use of loop diuretics, such as furosemide. But resistance occurs in all patients over time, and intensification of diuretic treatment is a vital part of managing patients with clinical signs - both for left- and right-sided manifestations of disease. How are we best to approach this, and what can we do when using diuretic drugs to make the best decisions that will have positive benefits for our patients? Join Jose and Kieran as they welcome Prof Mark Oyama, from the University of Pennsylvania, to discuss strategic use of diuretic drugs in the clinic and the most up to date research on how to judge diuretic efficacy in acute and chronic heart failure patients.

Message our hosts, Kieran and Jose.As veterinary cardiologists, we rely on ultrasound every day to assess cardiac structure and function. Whilst important for owners to understand the cause of a murmur or clinical signs, we use echo to make critical decisions about when and how to treat, and inform conversations with owners about prognosis. The impact of echo on the lives of our patients is greater than anything else we do. But it may not be as accurate as you think... Learn how to best use echocardiography to make decisions, and which echo measurements may be best to select for accuracy, by joining Jose and Kieran as they speak to Dr Lance Visser, Assistant Professor at Colorado State University, about his research work in veterinary echo and his advice on how best to use this fundamental tool.

Message our hosts, Kieran and Jose.Horses are highly evolved athletes, with mind-bending changes to the cardiovascular system achieved during exercise. How does the spectrum of heart disease compare to that seen in dogs and cats? Join our hosts, Jose and Kieran, as they enjoy a rapid-fire review of equine cardiac disorders with Prof Colin Schwarzwald, director of the Clinic of Equine Internal Medicine at the Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zurich.

Message our hosts, Kieran and Jose.Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) affects 1 in 7 cats overall, and has huge implications for feline health and wellbeing across the globe. Strategies to detect early disease are fundamentally important to both pet owners and cat breeders, so that individual animals and the wider breed can be cared for as needed. Screening for HCM in apparently healthy cats has become a hot topic, and who could be better to join Jose and Kieran for a discussion on that subject than Prof Jens Häggström? Jens is leader of the internationally recognised PawPeds echo screening programme, and originator of the some of the largest studies on feline disease ever published. Listen in as he shares insights into their most recent data and his opinions on how best to approach screening for early disease.

Message our hosts, Kieran and Jose.Dilated cardiomyopathy is one of the most challenging diseases in veterinary cardiology. Early detection is key to maximising benefit for individual dogs, but clinical signs are lacking and physical exam may be unremarkable. Adding to this, echocardiographic diagnosis may be subtle, or changes may be caused by a an underlying disease process which is reversible or self-limiting, rather than a primary myocardial disease itself. Prof Sonya Gordon, from Texas A&M University, joins Kieran and Jose to discuss the difficulties with DCM, and her approach to overcoming these to get the most for her patients.

Message our hosts, Kieran and Jose.We all learned about the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system in school... Or did we? This fantastic, in-depth interview on our current understanding of the RAAS will provide a revolutionary new perspective on how we may be able to harness the maladaptive systems that are activated in heart failure for positive purposes in our patients. Join Jose and Kieran as The Animal Heartbeat welcomes Professor Marisa Ames, Board-certified veterinary cardiologist and expert on the RAAS in dogs and cats.Please check out https://www.trigdocs.com/ to find out more about The Translational RAAS Interest Group, Dr Ames' collective of interested clinicians and researchers from the fields of veterinary and human medicine.

Message our hosts, Kieran and Jose.Over the last year, research data has indicated some potential hope for anti-hypertrophic drug use in feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In this episode, Prof Joshua Stern, Associate Dean of Research at NC State University and current President of the ACVIM Cardiology Specialty, joins Jose and Kieran to review our most recent understanding of some exciting approaches which may completely change how we think about feline cardiomyopathy in the coming 5-years.

Message our hosts, Kieran and Jose.What do you understand by clinical research? What makes a good research study, and what limitations are common in veterinary publications? How should clinical research work impact what we do as clinicians? In this episode, hosts Kieran and Jose interview Professor Adrian Boswood, Vice Principal at the Royal Veterinary College and active clinician-researcher in cardiology. Adrian has spearheaded a  number of game-changing clinical works over the last three decades, and has trained and inspired generations of undergraduate and post-graduate vets in the UK. He has lectured all over the world, and is known for his engaging and relatable explanations of complex topics.In this episode, we discuss aspects pertinent to all subspecialties in veterinary medicine, not just cardiology research, and we consider how things could be refined to get the most out of future clinical research.

Message our hosts, Kieran and Jose.Welcome to Season 2 of The Animal Heartbeat! It's great to be back. Join our hosts, Kieran and Jose, as they facilitate a panel discussion featuring world-renowned experts from the canine and human cardiology world. This fascinating special episode covers a range of topics centred around mitral and aortic surgery in dogs and humans, and compares the human and canine perspectives. This live event was made possible by the kind support of Ceva Animal Health.Our panel:Dr Ravi De Silva: Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Royal Papworth Hospital; Training Programme Director for Cardiothoracic Surgery, East of England DeaneryDr Anne Kurosawa: ACVIM Veterinary Cardiology Diplomate; Cardiology and Cardiothoracic Surgery Team, Dick White ReferralsDr Rohin Francis: Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, Essex Cardiothoracic Centre; UCL Clinical Research Fellow; Science Communicator (Youtube @medlifecrisis)Dr Claudio Bussadori: ECVIM Veterinary Cardiology Diplomate; Clinic Director, Clinica Veterinaria Gran Sasso, Milan; human cardiologist and researcher at San Donato Hospital, MilanNote - although the sound from St John's College, Cambridge, allows us to soak up the ambience of The Old Divinity School Lecture Theatre (1877), listening with earbuds may help to make the most of the audio experience.

Christmas Day! As the roast dinner is cooking and the Prosecco is being chilled, join Jose and Kieran as they finalise their choice for top heart disease of 2023. Make sure to listen to the end for "The 12 Heart Diseases of Christmas" song in full!

Christmas Eve. As Father Christmas readies the reindeer, what better way to prepare for festivities than discussing our favourite 12 heart diseases of Christmas? Join Kieran and Jose as they review their top heart disease facts and begin the process of selecting their favourite heart disease of 2023.

Recorded live at ECVIM Congress in 2023, this very special season finale see Kieran and Jose interview six incredible veterinary cardiology Diplomates from across the globe. Prof Roberto Santilli (Cornell / Malpensa) discusses his work on atrial depolarisation waves in SVT; David Connolly (RVC)  considers the next generation of drugs to treat HCM in cats; Michele Borgarelli (Virginia Maryland) reviews his unique LOOK-Mitral registry data; Tony Glaus (Zurich) talks pulmonary hypertension and hypoxia in dogs; Jo Dukes McEwan (Liverpool) reflects on canine DCM, and Jessica Ward (Iowa) brings us her thoughts on RAAS inhibition in the 2020s.

Atrial fibrillation is a common and often debilitating arrhythmia, which can affect a heterogenous patient population. Being in atrial fibrillation reduces cardiac output significantly, and can lead to a vicious circle of tachycardia and cardiac remodelling. Join Jose and Kieran as they interview Professor Anna Gelzer, from the University of Pennsylvania in the USA, and Dr Brigite Pedro, from Centro de Cardiologia Veterinaria do Porto and Virtual Veterinary Specialists. Prof Gelzer is a world renowned expert in conduction disturbances in companion animals, and Dr Pedro has recently completed a PhD in atrial fibrillation in dogs. As part of this work, they have collaborated on landmark research into the outcome of dogs with atrial fibrillation. In this episode, results from their recent publications are shared, alongside a wealth of experience in managing dogs with this challenging condition.

Pulmonary valve stenosis has become the most common congenital heart disease in dogs, and changes to the breeding population of dogs across the world over the last 20 years has seemingly influenced the morphology of the disease that we identify. In turn, this has posed challenges to cardiologists in terms of selecting the best diagnostic methods and approaches to treatment. In this episode, join Kieran and Jose as they interview Professor Brian Scansen from Colorado State University - interventionist, researcher, teacher and pioneer - and discuss their thoughts on the management of pulmonary valve stenosis in the 2020s.

Dilated cardiomyopathy is a common disease in dogs, which is almost uniquely difficult to diagnose in the early stages. In this episode, Kieran and Jose interview Prof Gerhard Wess, a clinician and researcher who leads the cardiology department at the LMU University of Munich, Germany. Prof Wess brings his extensive, decades-spanning experience of diagnosing and managing DCM to the podcast and shares his advice on how best to assess potential cases.

Dr Claudio Bussadori, inspirational veterinary specialist in cardiology and experienced human interventional cardiologist from the Clinica Veterinaria Gran Sasso in Milan, discusses aortic stenosis with Jose and Kieran. In the 23-years since he led the seminal guidelines used to assess the severity of congenital outflow tract stenosis in dogs, our understanding and approach to aortic stenosis has evolved - Dr Bussadori's unique comparative approach allows a wide-ranging discussion of this fascinating topic.

In the first of our special guest episodes, Professor Virginia Luis Fuentes from the Royal Veterinary College, London, joins Kieran and Jose to talk about treating cardiomyopathy in cats - beyond furosemide and clopidogrel. Listen in as Prof Luis Fuentes, a world-renowned expert and thought leader in feline heart disease, describes how she approaches a variety of treatment situations in cats, and the current thinking in human and feline medicine.

Pulmonary hypertension is a common complicating factor of heart disease in dogs, but is a cardiovascular disorder in its own right, associated with a number of primary disease processes. In this episode, Jose and Kieran discuss the diagnosis, causes and management of pulmonary hypertension in dogs.

In the second part of their discussion on mitral valve disease prognostic indicators, Jose and Kieran talk about what echo measurements provide the most useful assessment of prognosis in stage B disease, consider whether there is a place for using cardiac biomarkers in monitoring pre-clinical dogs, and review the recent literature covering how best to predict progression in pre-clinical dogs.

Mitral valve disease in dogs is the most common disorder encountered in veterinary cardiology. In this episode, Kieran and Jose discuss what factors could predict those dogs which are more likely to progress, what tests could be used to assess dogs with stage B mitral valve disease in primary care practice, and why the assessment of regurgitant fraction on echo may be important in decision making.

Jose and Kieran discuss heart murmurs in juvenile dogs. What findings make a heart murmur less likely to be pathological, and are there any ways of identifying young dogs with the most significant heart disease in primary care practice? What about those puppies with complex congenital disease that is not associated with an obvious heart murmur - can we identify where an echo may be useful in unexpected cases?

Join Kieran and Jose in the second part of a special series-opener on the topic of feline cardiology, focusing on echocardiographic findings in cats with cardiomyopathy.  Here, we delve into the topic of differentials for left ventricular hypertrophy (so-called phenocopies of HCM), prognostic factors associated with morphology, and when to intervene in pre-clinical cats with a hypertrophic phenotype.

Join veterinary cardiology specialists, Kieran Borgeat and Jose Novo Matos, in a discussion of feline heart disease. This is the first of a two-part series opening special, covering how to approach heart murmurs in cats, when it may be useful to use blood tests in screening, and how to facilitate performing a heart scan in feline patients.