Cardiac Disease

Pulmonic Stenosis is the third most common form of canine heart disease and has been reported in the Cesky Terrier. It can be accompanied by additional heart defects and can range in severity from severe breathlessness and the liklihood of a very short life to being mild enough to cause little apparent problem for the dog.

“Pulmonic stenosis” refers to a “stenosis” or constriction of the pulmonic heart valve through which blood must pass on its way from the heart to the lung.

What is pulmonic stenosis?
As part of normal circulation in the body, the right side of the heart (the right ventricle) pumps blood to the lungs to receive oxygen. The oxygenated blood goes back to the left side of the heart from which it is pumped out to the rest of the body.

Blood flows from the right ventricle of the heart through the pulmonic valve into the pulmonary artery and thence to the lungs. With pulmonic stenosis, there is partial obstruction of normal blood flow, most commonly due to a malformation of the pulmonic valve ("pulmonic valve dysplasia") but the abnormality may be immediately above or below the valve as well.

The effect of this partial obstruction is to force the heart to work harder to pump blood to the lungs. The extent to which a dog will be affected depends on the degree of narrowing (stenosis) of the valve area. With severe stenosis the dog will likely develop congestive heart failure due to the increased workload of the heart.