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Background: This paper presents an unusual form of disseminated Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in a dog. The infection lasted at least one year and its main gross lesions were massive cardiac tuberculomas. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of heart tuberculomas in a dog., Case Presentation: A 9-year-old mixed-breed male dog weighing 10 kg was referred to the clinic for cardiological evaluation before general anesthesia. The echocardiography revealed a lump of about 20 mm in diameter in the area of the left atrium. Almost one year later the same dog was presented again in severe clinical state (fever, anorexia, weight loss, depression, cough, dyspnea, lymphadenomegaly, vomiting, recent episodes of fainting). Due to progression of the disease and poor effects of treatment the owner decided to euthanize the dog. Most prominent lesions observed during autopsy were diffuse pneumonia, fibrinous pericarditis and epicarditis as well as large, yellow, semisolid masses of caseous necrosis in the left and right atrium (30 mm and 15 mm in diameter, respectively). From both pulmonary and cardiac lesions M. tuberculosis was isolated on Lowenstein-Jensen slants and in Bactec Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube 960 liquid media, and confirmed by BD ProbeTec ET Direct Detection Assay and spoligotyping., Conclusion: Companion animals may occasionally suffer from tuberculosis but majority of cases probably remain misdiagnosed or undetected. Typically tuberculosis in dogs affects lungs and their regional lymph nodes. Even in humans tuberculomas are rare manifestation of mycobacterial infection, mostly seen in the central nervous system. Atypical location of main tuberculous lesions may account for lack of correct ante mortem diagnosis in this case.

Background: Endocardiosis is the most common heart disease in Dachshunds and is therefore an important cause of cardiac morbidity and death. In recent years we have observed an increasing interest in the development of new genetic and genomic markers of heart disease. The discovery of miRNAs circulating in biofluids such as plasma or serum aroused researchers' interest in using them as potential biomarkers. In the present study we analysed the expression of 9 miRNAs described in literature as being involved in cardiovascular pathology in the plasma of dogs suffering from endocardiosis., Results: Expression analysis using the Real-time PCR method revealed that two out of nine miRNAs were significantly downregulated: the expression of miR-30b differed between ACVIM stage B and stage A (control) dogs; the expression of mi-133b differed ACVIM stage C and stage A dogs. 5 miRNAs (miR-125, miR-126, miR-21, miR-29b and miR-30b) showed a trend of downregulation in the ACVIM C group. Levels of miR-423 were the same in healthy and diseased dogs. Expression of miR-208a and 208b was not detected., Conclusions: miR-30b could be a potential biomarker of ACVIM stage B heart failure in Dachshunds with endocardiosis and miR-133b could be a potential biomarker of ACVIM stage C. The lack of expression or lack of significant changes in expression in 7 miRNAs which are potential biomarkers of heart diseases in humans proves that findings from human medicine are not always directly reflected in veterinary medicine.