Use of ACE inhibitor in two horses with cardiac alterations

Abstract

With the increased survival of horses and the improvement of nutritional quality of these, increasingly are seen in diagnostic centers and veterinary hospitals to treat older horses age up to 20 years. With this background, new diseases eventually or no diagnosed before start to take part of routine care and diagnostics. One of these new diagnoses is Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) as a result of valve changes, especially in the mitral valve. The diagnosis of these diseases is based on arterial pressure (AP) measurement and echocardiographic exam. For treatment, vasodilators are the most used drugs as Inhibitor of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme (ACE) – Enalapril Maleate (EM). Two horses were treated, a Mangalarga breed horse (ML) of 18 years old and an Arabian horse (PSA) of 18 years old, both showing signs of coughing, exercise intolerance and hypertension. EM was administered as recommended to continued use in a dose of 0.5 mg/kg orally every 24 hours, promoting a significant reduction in BP in the first week, returning to acceptable levels (120 × 80 mmHg) and remaining so for 14 months for ML and for 11 months for the PSA. Treatment with EM is efficient in controlling AP, reducing clinical signs of disease and improving quality of life of these patients.