Why Use Breed-Specific Reference Intervals?
Standard allometric scaling (Cornell method) is reliable for many dogs, but "deviant" breeds - in particular sighthounds like Greyhounds and Whippets - often have physiological heart sizes that fall outside standard multi-breed ranges.
Using breed-specific data helps avoid mis-staging patients with preclinical heart disease (Stage B1 vs B2).
However interpret with care. All breed data is based on specific local breed populations which may not match. Also remember reference ranges are designed to indicate outliers only, not necessarily diseased individuals. Where studies report mean and standard deviation data, reference values are reported as mean +- 2 sd (95% confidence limits).