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Concurrent Persistent Truncus Arteriosus and Left Atrial Diverticulum in a Domestic Short-Haired Cat

A 2-year-3-month-old neutered male domestic shorthair cat was presented for cardiological evaluation at the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, with a history of dyspnea, open-mouth breathing, cyanosis, and exercise intolerance. Physical examination identified a grade 4/6 systolic murmur, cyanosis, and mild dyspnea, with no abdominal abnormalities. Echocardiography revealed right ventricular hypertrophy, severe right atrial dilation, a thickened tricuspid valve, and a large nonrestrictive ventricular septal defect with a left-to-right shunt, consistent with persistent truncus arteriosus (PTA), confirmed postmortem. During necropsy, in addition to the clinically confirmed diagnoses, bilateral myxomatous degeneration of the A-V valves, and associated anomalies such as an atrial diverticulum and splenopancreatic fusion were observed and confirmed histologically. This case emphasizes the clinical and morphological complexity of congenital heart defects in felines, highlighting the importance of advanced diagnostic and histopathological techniques for accurate diagnosis and characterization.

Persistent truncus arteriosus with an anomalous coronary artery in a cat

A 6-month-old, female, domestic shorthair cat weighing 1.8 kg presented with cardiomegaly seen on radiographs taken at a primary care veterinary center. Echocardiography revealed a single enlarged vessel overriding a ventricular septal defect and severe hypertrophy of the right ventricular free wall. There was no evidence of a pulmonary arterial trunk originating from the heart. The blood flow through the ventricular septal defect exhibited right-to-left shunting. The cat suddenly experienced dyspnea and died at home, and a postmortem examination was performed. A single large vessel was noted leaving the heart, from which the right and left pulmonary arteries arose separately; a main pulmonary artery was absent. There was only one single anomalous coronary ostium that arose from the brachiocephalic artery and divided into two branches. The walls of the extracardiac coronary artery were thick, but neither infarcts nor narrowing was observed within the coronary arteries. There were no abnormalities in the intracardiac coronary artery. These findings revealed a persistent truncus arteriosus with an anomalous coronary artery. A combination of these anomalies might have contributed to the early death of the cat.