Equine Cardiology Case Days

Mary Durando

received her DVM degree from the University of Georgia before completing a residency in large animal internal medicine at the University of Florida. She became a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Large Animal) in 1996 and completed doctoral work in Physiology at the Medical University of South Carolina with research on endotoxemia and endotoxin tolerance. After this, she completed two years in a cardiology/ultrasound training program in the Sports Medicine section at the University of Pennsylvania New Bolton Center before taking a position as a Lecturer in Equine Medicine at the University of California, Davis for 3 years. Mary returned to New Bolton Center to work in their treadmill facility for 3 years, with a research emphasis on cardiopulmonary physiology during exercise, before working as an associate clinical professor in Large Animal Medicine at the University of Minnesota. Currently, she is a part owner of Equine Sports Medicine Consultants, an ambulatory consulting practice focusing on sports medicine and imaging, cardiology and internal medicine. She also is on the Internal Medicine staff at Mid Atlantic Equine Medical Center, in Ringos, NJ, and at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, Wellington, FL.

Gunther van Loon

graduated from Ghent University, Belgium, in 1992 and has worked at Ghent University, Equine Internal Medicine, ever since. In 2004 he became ECEIM Diplomate and in 2011 Associate Member of ECVDI. In 2001 he finished his PhD on “Atrial pacing and experimental atrial fibrillation in equines”. He is author or co-author of more than 220 A1 publications and 26 book chapters and gave about 400 presentations at national or international congresses and meetings. In 2015 he received the British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) award for ‘Clinical Research’ (Liverpool, UK) and in addition the prestigious Merial Applied Equine Research Award for outstanding research regarding ‘Advances in Equine Cardiology’, awarded by the World Equine Veterinary Association (WEVA) (Guadalajara, Mexico). He is head of the Equine Internal Medicine department at Ghent University, head of the Equine Cardioteam Ghent and Past-President of the Belgian Equine Practitioners Society (BEPS). He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Veterinary Cardiology. His major interests are in the field of equine cardiology and vascular diseases with specific expertise in cardiac ultrasound (including 4D echo, intracardiac echocardiography), cardiac biomarkers, arrhythmias, electrophysiological studies, cardiac pacing and pacemaker implantation, 3D electro-anatomical mapping and radiofrequency ablation. Gunther has established the Equine Cardioteam Ghent which performs high level cardiac research and advanced diagnosis and treatment in over 300 cardiac cases per year, in a fully equipped lab.

Lesley Young

has been providing specialist cardiology referral services to Equine practitioners in the UK and Europe for over 30 years. She holds an RCVS diploma in Veterinary cardiology, is an honorary member of BEVA, and an honorary professor of the Royal Dick Vet in Edinburgh.  Lesley still attends over 130 referral equine cardiology cases per annum. Along with her colleagues Professors John Keen and Karen Blissitt from the Dick Vet in Edinburgh, the so called “DICKY TICKERS” provide cardioversion services based at The Royal Dick Large Animal and Newmarket Equine Hospitals and at several equine hospitals across the United Kingdom and Ireland. During her time at the Animal Health trust between 1995 and 2005, her research work on cardiac murmurs in racing Thoroughbreds improved understanding of the impact and epidemiology of valvular regurgitation in horses and provided insights into the cardiovascular effects of training in athletic horses.