Stimulation of the renin-angiotensin system in cats with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a disease of the ventricular myocardium, which may cause sudden death in cats, but neither the aetiology nor the effect on the circulation are well understood. Fourteen cats of either sex with naturally occurring HCM were studied post mortem. Their ages ranged from 9 months to 10 years with an average age of 4.9 years. Heart weights and heart weight expressed as a percentage of body weight were elevated (27.9 g and 0.65%, respectively) as compared with normal values obtained in previous studies. Myocardial disarray was evident in nine of the 14 cats and moderate to severe fibrosis was present in six animals. To evaluate the renal renin-angiotensin system, semiquantitative morphometric data were obtained by means of renin immunohistochemistry and compared with results from an earlier study of 10 healthy cats by the author. The juxtaglomerular index was 36.8% in the cats with HCM as compared with 30.6% in healthy cats. The renin-positive portion of the afferent arteriole was increased in cats affected by HCM to 86.0 microm as compared with 49.9 microm in normal cats. The increase in kidney renin values in cats with HCM may have been due to decreased blood pressure and reduced renal perfusion resulting from impaired cardiac output. Copyright Harcourt Publishers Ltd.