Taurine-responsive cardiomyopathy in English Cocker Spaniels: nutritional and familial influences on cardiac phenotype

Taurine-responsive cardiomyopathy (TauR-CM) is a potentially reversible heart disease that is increasingly recognized in dogs; however, its occurrence, risk factors, and clinical significance remain incompletely understood.The aims of this thesis were to evaluate factors that may affect blood taurine concentrations (B-TauC) in dogs and to investigate B-TauC in English Cocker Spaniels (ECS), with a focus on the occurrence of low B-TauC (In paper I, agreement between analytical methods and additives, intraindividual variation, and effects of time from feeding on B-TauC were assessed in 100 samples from 20 dogs. In paper II, occurrence of Blood taurine concentrations showed acceptable agreement between methods and additives when analyzed for the group as a whole but showed substantial intraindividual variation between sampling occasions (paper I). Almost 30% of the 180 ECS had In conclusion,