Agnieszka Noszczyk-Nowak

Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences · Department of Internal Medicine and Clinic of Diseases of Horses, Dogs and Cats

Introduction: Obesity and metabolic syndrome (MetS) constitute a rapidly increasing health problem and contribute to the development of multiple comorbidities like acute and chronic kidney disease. Insulin resistance, inappropriate lipolysis, and excess of free fatty acids (FFAs) are associated with glomerulus hyperfiltration and atherosclerosis....

Background Electrocardiography is a method widely applied in diagnosing abnormalities in the functioning of the heart muscle in veterinary medicine. It is a non-invasive and easy to perform test helpful in the general examination and a widely used patient monitoring method during anesthesia. Since the 1980s, pigs have become more and more popular c...

Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury is accompanied by an increase of matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2) activity, which degrades heart contractile proteins. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of MMP-2 small interfering RNA (MMP-2 siRNA) administration on I/R heart. Isolated rat hearts perfused by the Langendorff method were subjected...

Introduction Acute myocardial infarction (MI) is one of the most common causes of death in humans in highly developed countries. Among its most frequent complications affecting the patient’s prognosis are cardiac arrhythmias: ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF). Material and Methods The study aimed to characterise arrhyt...

Heart failure occurs in increased oxidative stress conditions, which contribute to the progression of pathological changes. Orally or intravenously administered acetylsalicylic acid (ASA, aspirin) is typically used in human patients with acute myocardial ischemia. The study used an experimental porcine ischemia-reperfusion model to evaluate the pot...

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a disease that has a complex etiology. It is defined as the co-occurrence of several pathophysiological disorders, including obesity, hyperglycemia, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. MetS is currently a severe problem in the public health care system. As its prevalence increases every year, it is now considered a global p...

Background: Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) is a pivotal mechanism of organ injury during clinical stetting for example for cardiopulmonary bypasses. The generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during I/R induces oxidative stress that promotes endothelial dysfunction, DNA dissociation and local inflammation. In turn, those processes induce cytokine...

It has been well established that obesity in horses can have a negative impact on their health, including endocrine disturbances. In humans, it is well known that obesity leads to structural and functional changes of the cardiovascular system. The aim of the study was to assess the impact of obesity on the histological structure of the myocardial t...

Despite advances in the management of iron deficiency in heart failure (HF), the mechanisms underlying the effects of treatment remain to be established. Iron distribution and metabolism in HF pathogenesis need to be clarified. We used a porcine tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy model to find out how HF development influences hepatic and myocardia...

The article presents the problem of the mechanical response of nerve roots under stretching conditions. Research into the functioning of the nervous system shows a relation between deformation, blood flow characteristics, and nerve root impulse transmission. These studies show that vascular hypofusion of peripheral nerves occurs at a deformation of...

Animal nutrition plays an important role in the therapy of many diseases, including heart failure. The aim was to assess whether 6 months of feeding an AEP + ADH enriched diet (from fish meat) in dogs suffering from heart failure due to mitral degeneration impacts the dogs’ metabolic profile and clinical status. Twenty small breed dogs were include...

The mitral valve apparatus is a complex structure consisting of the mitral ring, valve leaflets, papillary muscles and chordae tendineae (CT). The latter are mainly responsible for the mechanical functions of the valve. Our study included investigations of the biomechanical and structural properties of CT collected from canine and porcine hearts, a...

Sclerotherapy is the chemical occlusion of vessels using an intravenous injection of a liquid or foamed sclerosing agent that is used in the therapy of blood and lymphatic vessels malformations in the young, and for spider veins, smaller varicose veins, hemorrhoids and hydroceles in adults. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of mechanoscl...

Introduction: Cardiorespiratory syndrome of common foxes has been reported since the 1980s. Although the condition is observed at a number of farms in Europe and America, its etiology still remains elusive. Materials and methods: The study was conducted at a common fox (Vulpes vulpes) farm located in Central Poland, having a total of 500 females an...

Introduction Atrial fibrillation may potentially contribute to oxidative stress to a greater extent than chronic heart failure. The aim of the study was to compare the serum total antioxidant capacity and enzymatic antioxidant defence of dogs with chronic heart failure and atrial fibrillation with those of subjects with chronic heart failure and si...

In clinical practice, atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia in humans and it may lead to numerous complications, including central nervous system embolism. The electrical activity of the heart in AF is rapid and chaotic, while the atrioventricular conduction leads to irregular ventricular contraction. Consequently, the stro...

j m a t e r r e s t e c h n o l. 2 0 2 0;9(x x):9004-9015 w w w. j m r t. c o m. b r Finite element method Urinary flow Stents of urethra Urethral stenosis Hydrogel a b s t r a c t The paper contains the results of the analysis of sodium alginate use as a material for making urethral stents, necessary for the treatment of urinary disorders. Strengt...

Introduction: Although peripheral blood analysis has become increasingly automated, microscopy is the only available method for the diagnosis of anisocytosis and poikilocytosis. The aims of the study were to compare RBC volume data obtained with two different analysers and by manual assessment of smears and to compare this data between dogs in var...

Pathological conditions of a male urethra, including fibrosis, have a mechanical background along the entire length of the urethra. They may be caused by excessive deformation of the urethra locally or globally. The condition of prolonged overload causes abnormal tissue remodelling and, consequently, the formation of a thick layer of scar tissue di...

Abstract Background Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the most common cardiovascular cause of death in cats. Although the majority of cats remain asymptomatic, some may develop signs of chronic heart failure due to diastolic failure, arterial thromboembolism (ATE) or sudden cardiac death. Therefore, it is crucial to identify individuals that are in hi...

Dysfunction of heart leads inevitable to the dysfunction of kidney which is termed as the cardiorenal syndrome (CRS). Previous studies have confirmed existence of CRS in dogs with degenerative mitral valve disease (DMVD). The goal of the study was to assess the usefulness of commercial test to measure podocyturia in dogs and test the urine podocine...

This study was designed to evaluate the antioxidative status of serum by measuring its total antioxidant capacity, as well as the antioxidant enzyme activity (superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione reductase), in dogs with various stages of degenerative mitral valve disease (DMVD) compared to healthy controls. In total, 71 client-owned dog...

Uszkodzenia tchawicy spowodowane wprowadzeniem rur umożliwiających przywrócenie wentylacji płuc. Identyfikacja parametrów mechanicznych jest konieczna w celu rozpoznania patomechanizmu zmian w tkance, związanych z nieprawidłową przebudową. Uzyskane rezultaty badań mechanicznych pozwoliły na opracowanie modelu matematycznego tchawicy w warunkach wie...

Introduction Pacemaker implantation is the only effective symptomatic treatment for life-threatening bradyarrhythmias. Major complications observed after implantation of cardiac pacemakers include lead dislocation, loss of pulse generator function, and inadequate stimulation. The aim of this retrospective single-centre study was to analyse the indi...

Background Precise understanding of the dimensions of the vascular lumina is essential for accurate interpretation of cardiac vessels imaging. To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first study focusing on the ultrasound measurement of the right coronary artery (RCA) in the horse. The aim of this study was to determine both the ultrasonographi...

In recent years, starch has become a new potential biomaterial for pharmaceutical applications. This bio-polymer has unique physicochemical and functional characteristics, as well as various advantages such as low price, relative ease of isolation in pure form from the plant source, non-toxicity, biodegradability, good biocompatibility, and interac...

The aim of this study was to establish the physiological ECG values in the Silesian horse and to compare the results with literature data for other breeds of horses. This study was carried out on 31 healthy Silesian horses (15 males and 16 females) aged 2-19 years. The ECG was carried out after an anamnesis and clinical examination and without prio...

Introduction: In recent years, the high sensitivity and specificity of novel miRNA biomarkers have been utilised for early diagnosis and treatment monitoring of various diseases. Previous reports showed that abnormal expression of miR-208 in mice resulted in the development of an aberrant cardiac conduction system and consecutive arrhythmias. On th...

Introduction: Ventricular rhythm disturbances are a common pathology in human and veterinary medicine. In humans, the algorithmic approach is used to differentiate wide QRS complex tachycardia. The most commonly used are the aVR and Brugada algorithms as well as the ventricular tachycardia (VT) score developed by Jastrzębski and coworkers. In veter...

Introduction Electrical cardioversion is a therapeutic procedure used to convert various types of arrhythmias back to sinus rhythm. It is used to restore the sinus rhythm in dogs with atrial fibrillation. The effect of the electrical energy used during cardioversion on red blood cells (RBC) is not fully understood. Studies on humans reported lysis...

The majority of anaesthetics used in studies regarding heart arrhythmias may affect the cardiac conduction system, thus influencing the results. In veterinary medicine, xylazine, medetomidine and dexmedetomidine are commonly used for premedication in laboratory and companion animals. To date, there have been no studies assessing the effect of these...

Introduction: Electrical cardioversion is a therapeutic procedure used to convert various types of arrhythmias back to sinus rhythm. It is used to restore the sinus rhythm in dogs with atrial fibrillation. The effect of the electrical energy used during cardioversion on red blood cells (RBC) is not fully understood. Studies on humans reported lysis...

The aim of the study was the analysis of electrocardiographic and echocardiographic parameters in Rhodesian ridgebacks. A group of 16 Rhodesian (9 females, 7 males) in age ranges from 2 to 9 (6.2 ± 2.91) and weighing from 38kg to 56kg (44.66 ±5.78) were divided into two groups based on thyroid hormone concentration in their blood. The first group c...

The aim of the study was to analyse the influence of enrofloxacin and pradofloxacin administered orally for 14 days on the ECG in dogs. The ECG was performed before and after a 14 day period of quinolone administration. There was an increase in the QTc and the TpTe interval in the group treated with quinolones. QTc was prolonged by 24 ms (p=0.001)....

The presence of an accessory atrioventricular conduction pathway may provide the anatomical basis for some tachyarrhythmias. Persistent tachyarrythmias may result in the development of systolic dysfunction or tachycardiomyopathy and eventual progression to heart failure. In this paper we report the successful ablation of an accessory pathway involv...

Background: Invasive electrophysiology study (EPS) is one of the most important adjunct tests for the evaluation of arrhythmias in human medicine. Moreover, it is a vital procedure conducted prior to, and after, radiofrequency ablation. However, EPS is neither well known, nor widely used in veterinary medicine. Objective: To define the values for i...

The prevalence of arrhythmias in dogs and the influence of sex, breed, age, and body weight were analysed over a seven-year span. In total, 1189 referrals for cardiological examination by electrocardiography were received at one academic centre in Poland between 2008 and 2014. The largest proportion of the examined dogs were cross-breeds with body...

Heart rate variability is an established risk factor for mortality in both healthy dogs and animals with heart failure. The aim of this study was to compare short-term heart rate variability (ST-HRV) parameters from 60-min electrocardiograms in dogs with sick sinus syndrome (SSS, n=20) or chronic mitral valve disease (CMVD, n=20) and healthy contro...

A 6-month-old, 17 kg, male Labrador Retriever was presented for an evaluation of a suspected patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). Transthoracic echocardiography confirmed a left-to-right shunting PDA with a minimal ductal diameter of 3.5 mm. A transcatheter PDA occlusion was performed, and a 16 mm Amplatzer Vascular Plug II was selected for the procedur...

Background Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) are the most common diseases noted in dogs. Although their pathogenesis varies, both include a significant enlargement of the left atrium.The study was carried out on left atrial specimens obtained from 56 dogs, including those from 34 dogs with clinically diagnosed...

Background: Swine are a well-recognized animal model for human cardiovascular diseases. Despite the widespread use of porcine model in experimental electrophysiology, still no reference values for intracardiac electrical activity and conduction parameters determined during an invasive electrophysiology study (EPS) have been developed in this speci...

OBJETIVOS DEL TRABAJO-OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of arrhythmias in dogs overall, as well as stratified by sex, breed, age and body weight. The study included 1 189 dogs referred for cardiologic examination with electrocardiography at a single academic center in 2008-2014. MATERIAL Y MÉTODO-MATERIAL AN...

Background. Swine are recognized animal models of human cardiovascular diseases. However, little is known on the CHF-associated changes in the electrophysiological ventricular parameters of humans and animals. Objectives. The aim of this study was to analyze changes in the durations of ventricular effective refraction period (VERP), QT and QTc inte...

Background: Swine are recognized animal models of human cardiovascular diseases. However, little is known on the CHF-associated changes in the electrophysiological ventricular parameters of humans and animals. Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze changes in the durations of ventricular effective refraction period (VERP), QT and QTc i...

Primary heart tumours affect less than 1% of dogs. Due to their rare incidence, every research showing the frequency of cardiac tumours is valuable. Routine diagnostics is often complemented with immunohistochemical analysis. This study was conducted on 110 patient records from all veterinary faculties in Poland from dogs diagnosed with heart tumou...

Introduction: Both canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and chronic mitral valve disease (CMVD) include a significant enlargement of the left atrium (LA). It is suspected that the LA enlargement in DCM is not only the result of volume overload (as it occurs in CMVD), but also of myocardial dysfunction leading to its decreased contractility. Material...

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and chronic mitral valve disease (CMVD) in dogs are associated with heart chamber enlargement, also of the left atrium. DCM is often accompanied by rhythm disturbances (mainly atrial fibrillation or ventricular arrhythmias). In CMVD, arrhythmias are observed less frequently. It is still unclear whether left atrial enlar...

Background: Cardiorespiratory syndrome of common foxes is associated with a mortality rate ranging from 2.1% to 20%. Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of cardiac abnormalities in common foxes (Vulpes vulpes) from Polish farms with a history of cardiorespiratory syndrome. Animals and methods: The prevalence of cardi...

Although sex differences in heart failure (HF) prevalence and severity have been recognized, its molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. We used a tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy model to determine the sex specific remodeling pattern in male and female adult pigs. We compared the echocardiographic and molecular measures of myocardial remodel...

The study has focused on the retrospective analysis of cases of coexisting congenital aortic stenosis (AS) and pulmonary artery stenosis (PS) in dogs. The research included 5463 dogs which were referred for cardiological examination (including clinical examination, ECG and echocardiography) between 2004 and 2014. Aortic stenosis and PS stenosis wer...

The aim of the study was to determine the epidemiological prevalence of aortic stenosis (AS) among dogs in Poland. Among 287 dogs, diagnosed with congenital heart disease at the Department of Internal Diseases and the Clinic of Horses, Dogs and Cats, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, at the Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences in Pol...

Heart rate variability (HRV) is a well established mortality risk factor in both healthy dogs and those with heart failure. While the standards for short-term HRV analysis have been developed in humans, only reference values for HRV parameters determined from 24-hour ECG have been proposed in dogs. The aim of this study was to develop the reference...

High levels of circulating catecholamines have been established as fundamental pathophysiological elements of heart failure (HF). However, it is unclear whether the increased gene expression of catecholamine-synthesis enzymes in the adrenal glands contributes to these hormone abnormalities in large animal HF models. We analyzed the mRNA levels of c...

The aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of sildenafil citrate administrated intravaginaly on the blood flow in the bovine uterus during dioestrus. Uterine blood flow was examined in six healthy adult cows. Sildenafil was administrated intravaginaly to each co w between the 6th and 8th d of the ovarian cycle, in the form of vaginal suppos...

The aim of the study was the analysis of the repolarization period in Great Dane dogs. Fifty-eight clinically healthy Great Danes (30 males, 28 females) between 1 and 9 years old (3.2 +/- 1.8 years old on average) were included in the study. A resting ECG with the use of limb (I, II, III, aVR, aVL, aVF) and precordial leads (V1, V2, V4) in the righ...

Introduction: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) are common heart conditions in dogs. They have different etiology and pathogenesis and although other studies focused on changes in the left ventricles of the affected hearts, the aim of our study was to assess the expressions of some intrinsic proteins in the en...

Myocarditis is a disease caused by numerous etiological factors and characterized by a non-specific course. The only method allowing for precise characterization of inflammatory changes is the histopathological examination of heart muscle specimens. The study was conducted on heart muscle preparations from 11 dogs with ante-mortem diagnosis of card...

The study was an attempt to determine the possibilities of using ovocystatin, a component of a new generation product of natural origin, in local therapy of atopic dermatitis in dogs by suppressing pruritus during illness. Chicken egg cystatin was used locally in the interdigital spaces of forelimbs of dogs used in the experiment. The degree of pru...