A 7-year-old castrated male Labrador retriever was examined for a 10-day history of weakness and syncope. Physical examination revealed bradycardia and a grade III/VI left apical systolic heart murmur. Electrocardiography demonstrated bradycardia, absence of P waves and an atrio-ventricular nodal escape rhythm.
Tetralogy of Fallot is a complex congenital heart disease that typically consists of a VSD, override of the interventricular septum by the aortic root, obstruction of the right ventricular outflow tract, and secondary hypertrophy of the right ventricle.1,2
The disease is caused by an anterior deviation and abnormal septation of the conal septum during the embryonic period. 3–5
This combination of conotruncal abnormalities was first described in 1888 by Etienne-Louis Arthur Fallot6 as “la maladie bleue” (“blue baby syndrome”).
From the Unité de Cardiologie d’Alfort (Chetboul, Pitsch, Gouni, Misbach, Trehiou-Sechi, Petit, Damoiseaux, Pouchelon), Unité de Pharmacie-Toxicologie (Tissier), and Department of Biostatistics and Clinical Epidemiology (Desquilbet), Université Paris-Est, École Nationale Vétérinaire d’Alfort, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vétérinaire d’Alfort, 94704 Maisons-Alfort cedex, France; the Centre Hospitalier Vétérinaire des Cordeliers, 29 avenue du maréchal Joffre, 77100 Meaux, France (Pitsch, Bomassi); and INSERM U955, Equipe 03, 51 avenue du maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny, 94010 Créteil cedex, France (Chetboul, Tissier, Pouchelon).
Address correspondence to Dr. Chetboul (valerie.chetboul@vet-alfort.fr).
Centre Hospitalier Vétérinaire des Cordeliers, 29 avenue du Maréchal Joffre, 77100 Meaux. Cet article a été publié dans : JAVMA (15 Oct. 2016) Vol 249 No. 8
