Scientists recently tested a noninvasive, wireless, wearable device that allows veterinarians to monitor heart function, sounds and murmurs, and more while the horse remains free to move around his normal surroundings. | Photo: iStock

If you have to restrain a horse every time you want to evaluate his cardiac function, you’re probably not getting a realistic view of how his heart works when he’s in motion. Yet, a heart’s electrical function is the only continuously measurable variable in moving horses, which can leave out critical information related to the heart’s mechanical functions. So Swiss researchers recently validated a system that detects and records electrical and mechanical cardiac data simultaneously, while horses are free to move about as they please.

“This new monitor is a completely noninvasive, wireless, wearable device that allows continuous monitoring of the heart’s electrical and mechanical functions, heart sounds and murmurs, body position, physical activity, and respiratory effort,” said Colin Schwarzwald, DVM, PhD, an equine internist and cardiology specialist in the University of Zurich Vetsuisse Faculty Equine Department, in Switzerland.

“During recordings, horses can freely move and do not have to be restrained in any way,” he said. “This allows long-term monitoring in a natural environment, to study normal cardiac physiology but also to monitor cardiac function in horses with heart disease