Hypertrophy of the Heart. 



433 



SIMPLE HYPERTROPHY. HYPERTROPHY WITH DI- SIMPLE DILATATION. 



Pulse full, strong, 

 firm, tense, resisting 

 and prolonged without 

 jerk or thrill. 



LATATION. 



Fullnefs of pulse con- 

 tinues but strength and 

 powerof resistance lost. 



Rarely and never rap- 

 idly the direct cause of 

 death. 



Indirectly arid more or 

 less rapidly fatal. 



Pulse small and feeble, 

 much later than the 

 heart beat. Regular or 

 feeble, fluttering and ir- 

 regular. Venous pulse 

 in the jugulars. 



Palpitation frequent. 

 Faintness occurs from 

 time to time, and may 

 lapse into fainting and 

 sudden death. 



Pure hypertrophy rarely imphes imminent danger unless de- 

 pendent on some pre-existing structural disease which impedes 

 the freedom of the circulation. If excessive, however, or if 

 associated with dilatation, the animal is short-winded and unfit 

 for all but the slowest work. It predisposes to congestion or 

 apoplexy of the lungs when its seat is the right ventricle, and to 

 congestions and hemorrhage in other parts of the system, brain, 

 kidney, lungs, liver, bowels, if in the left. 



Asthma (dogs), heaves (horses), emphysema and tuberculosis 

 in cattle are occasional complications attended by grave symptoms. 



The dog is liable to show the symptoms of valvular insuf- 

 ficiency : — dyspnoea, giddiness, impaired eyesight, palpitations ; 

 also forcible heart impulse, loudness of the first heart sound, and 

 low muffled second sound, blowing sound opposite the middle or 

 base of the heart on the left side and during deep inspiration, 

 and cardiac murmur with either first or second sound. There is 

 an irregularity of heart rhythm and pulse. Finally, percussion 

 shows an increased area of flatness, not only observed over the ster- 

 num and breast, but also on the lateral thoracic walls, and often 

 extending as far as the ensiform cartilage. 



In pigeons the violent palpitations shake the body, and there 

 may be hemorrhages. 



Treatment. In advanced cases and such as are dependent on 

 irremovable structural changes in the lungs or elsewhere, no treat- 

 ment is of any avail. In recent and uncomplicated cases in the horse 

 and cow and in some more advanced conditions in other animals, 

 not used for work, a palliative treatment may be profitably adopted. 

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