Cardiac Lesions Leading to Sudden Death in a Beagle

Abstract

A 9-month-old male beagle suddenly died without any clinical signs. Histopathologically, he showed acute circulatory insufficiency due to diffuse degenerative changes of blood vessels and exudation from arterioles and myocardial contraction band necrosis of the heart. The cardiac lesions were marked in the left ventricle and the vascular lesion consisted of medial degeneration of the arterial system extending from the main branches of the extramural coronary arteries to the arteriolar segments. These lesions showed no inflammatory changes.