Since the last report we have had:
- A further 23 scans performed
- 11 revisits, 12 new dogs
- Only 1 new diagnosis of DCM
- The majority of the dogs remaining were normal (rather than equivocal, which you will remember was quite a common ‘diagnosis’ previously). I think this likely reflects the fact that we have ‘moved the goal posts’ for what we consider normal based on our research over the last 5 years, and also we are seeing younger dogs. Still, it is good news!
- A further 8 Holter monitors
- Most in dogs aged 3 years or less
- Only one abnormal recording. This might be because most of the dogs are very young, and it is possible that Holters will not pick up abnormalities in the young dogs. But we need to do lots more Holters to investigate this further.
I have done the first screening session away from Liverpool using the mobile scanner which I feel was a success, and I hope that there will be more in the future, and we can encourage more people to participate without having to travel far.
We have a further 9 scans currently booked in, and plan to Holter another 5 dogs, so far.
We updated Tim and Olivia in March with the latest funding balance, which stood at £6529 at that meeting.
To bring us up to date we have still to invoice the grant for: £1,122.08
So the SUB-TOTAL (current) = £5,406.92 left of the funds (not including dogs booked in in the future)
As we discussed last time I will be submitting a proposal to the KCCT for funding to perform more Holter monitors and Troponin I analysis in Danes aged 1 year and over. We are still putting the grant together but the breed council is going to write in support of the application. As we will hopefully have money specifically for Holters, hopefully we can use the remaining funds, and any funds raised at future breed club events, for continuing the scanning side of the research, which still remains very important.
Hannah Stephenson
April 2014