Acquired left-to-right shunting through a valve-incompetent foramen ovale in a cat with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure

Case summary An 8-year-old spayed female domestic shorthair cat was presented for a recheck evaluation of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and chronic kidney disease. Three years prior to presentation, the patient was diagnosed with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and started on atenolol. The left ventricular outflow tract obstruction subsequently resolved. Biochemical analysis a week prior to presentation demonstrated severe azotemia. Transthoracic echocardiograph revealed pericardial effusion, pleural effusion, severe left ventricular concentric hypertrophy, severe left atrial enlargement and continuous left-to-right flow through the interatrial septum near the fossa ovalis. The patient was euthanized owing to poor prognosis, and gross examination at necropsy revealed a valve-incompetent patent foramen ovale secondary to severe left atrial dilation. Relevance and novel information To our knowledge, this is the first report of an acquired left-to-right shunt through a valve-incompetent foramen ovale in a cat with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Severe left atrial dilation was suspected to cause interatrial shunting through the valve-incompetent foramen ovale, and this finding may be relevant to echocardiographic evaluations in other cats.