Evaluation of clinical and electrocardiographic changes during the euthanasia of horses

The objective of this prospective field study was to investigate whether commonly used criteria for clinical death occurred at the same time as cardiac death, as determined by electrocardiography. Specific ECG changes during euthanasia were also studied. Twenty-nine horses were euthanized with pento...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The veterinary journal (1997) 2013-06, Vol.196 (3), p.483-491
Main Authors: Buhl, R., Andersen, L.O.F., Karlshøj, M., Kanters, J.K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
analysis of variance
Animals
cardiac arrest
Death
detomidine
Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
Drug Therapy, Combination
ECG
electrocardiography
Electrocardiography - veterinary
Euthanasia
Euthanasia, Animal
heart sounds
Horse
horses
Horses - physiology
Hypnotics and Sedatives - administration & dosage
Hypnotics and Sedatives - pharmacology
Imidazoles - administration & dosage
Imidazoles - pharmacology
Indexing in process
Pentobarbital
Pentobarbital - administration & dosage
Pentobarbital - pharmacology
QT interval
reflexes
sedation
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Summary:The objective of this prospective field study was to investigate whether commonly used criteria for clinical death occurred at the same time as cardiac death, as determined by electrocardiography. Specific ECG changes during euthanasia were also studied. Twenty-nine horses were euthanized with pentobarbital at two different dose rates and 15 of the 29 horses also received detomidine hydrochloride for sedation. ECG was recorded prior to and during euthanasia. Time to collapse, cessation of reflexes, heart sounds and asystole were recorded. ECG recordings were used to calculate RR intervals, PQ duration, QRS duration, distance from QRS complex to end of T wave corrected for HR (QTc interval), duration of T-wave from peak to end (TpeakTend) and amplitudes of T wave (Tpeak) before and during euthanasia. Differences between groups and ECG changes were evaluated using analysis of variance. Clinical determination of death occurred before cardiac death (P
ISSN:1090-0233
1532-2971
DOI:10.1016/j.tvjl.2012.11.016