Electrocardiogram from the Longest-Living Racehorse in Japan: Legendary Racehorse Shinzan

Abstract

The paper describes the ECG obtained from the longest-living racehorse in Japan. The horse named Shinzan became the first postwar Japanese triple crown champion. Although the horse died of heart failure on July 13, 1996 (35 years and 3 months old), we had recorded ECGs from the horse at clinical examination from time to time since December 30, 1994. The first ECG was recorded from the horse on December 30, 1994 and the diagnosis was atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation was still present in the final ECG recording obtained with a Holter ECG recorder on May 17, 1996. It was therefore considered that the atrial fibrillation was of a persistent and not a paroxysmal type.