Introduction
India has few unique horse breeds, which survived in its harshest
environment for and has a history of usage over several thousand years
as pack animals, war, local transport, agriculture and religious
ceremonies. Kathiawari horses are culturally important animals in India
and has a very rich heritage and is one of the breed with excellent
endurance capabilities In general, the cardiovascular problems in horses
can cause poor performance and sudden death during high-intensity
exercises. Thorough cardiac examination is more important for assessing
the performance of heart and diagnosing cardiovascular dysfunctions in
horses (Chanda and Petchdee, 2022). Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and
cardiac troponin T (cTnT) are the specific cardiac biomarkers for
diagnosing the cardiac injuries in horses. These biomarkers are more
effective in identifying cardiac injuries due to various conditions such
as infection, trauma, ischemia, toxicity, inflammation, or autoimmune
disorders thus paving the way to extend their clinical use in equine
cardiology (Lippi and Plebani, 2019). Use of these biomarkers shall be
seen as a new revolution in the diagnosis of heart diseases especially
when assayed with the novel high-sensitivity immunoassays, which enables
the detection of even trace amounts of both cTnI and cTnT in the vast
majority of healthy individuals (van der Linden et al ., 2017).
The exercise induced increases in cTnI is mild and not comparable to the
concentrations found in the horses with signs of cardiac disease. The
increased concentrations of cTnI along with the clinical symptoms and
findings on ECG, echocardiography and necropsy indicate that the assay
is used to detect horses with cardiac disease. Pronounced elevation in
cardiac troponin I (cTnI) concentration could be a robust indicator of
myocardial injury (Nostell and Häggström, 2008).
Echocardiography is very useful for investigation of cardiac structures
and determination of the chamber size provides valuable information
about the cardiac function. Echocardiographic examination is a
fundamental tool for identifying and interpreting abnormal findings in
healthy horses. Normal reference ranges for several echocardiographic
measurements have been reported for Thoroughbreds, Standardbreds,
Warmbloods and Arabian Thoroughbreds. Up to now, no echocardiographic
reference values have been reported for Indian breeds like Kathiawari
and Marwari horses. Based on this aim the study was undertaken in Indian
Kathiawari horses.