ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHIC FINDINGS IN CALVES WITH EXPERIMENTALLY INDUCED RIGHT VENTRICULAR HYPERTROPHY

Surface electrocardiograms (ECG) from 20 clinically healthy calves and 3 calves with experimentally induced right ventricular hypertrophy (RVH) were studied to assess the influence of RVH on the configuration of the bovine ECG. In the calves with RVH decreased cardiac axes and increased voltages of QRS complexes in leads I and aVL (extremity leads) and in bv1 and bv5 (precordial leads) were found. Using generally accepted human electrocardiographc theories, these findings could be explained from geometrical differences between the hearts of normal calves and the hearts of calves with RVH.