Echocardiographic indices in normal German shepherd dogs

Abstract

Sixty clinically normal German shepherd dogs, 31 males and 29 females, ranging in age from 1 and 5 years and with a body weight ranging from 22 to 37.2 kg, were examined by the two-dimensional mode, M-mode, and Doppler echocardiography. In Doppler mode, the mitral valve flows were obtained, where the aim was to determine the velocity peaks and ratios of the E and A waves and the mitral E wave deceleration time. The velocity peaks were obtained for the tricuspid, pulmonary and aortic valves. On the left ventricular outflow tract flow, the time velocity integral and aortic cross-sectional area was used to calculate the cardiac output. A statistically significant correlation with the body weight was found for the systolic left atrial and diastolic aortic diameter on two-dimensional mode. On M-mode, there was a significant correlation between the body weight and the systolic left atrium and diastolic aortic dimension, systolic and diastolic left ventricular, septal and posterior wall dimensions. Doppler echocardiography showed that there was no significant correlation between the body weight and the mitral, tricuspid, pulmonary and aortic valves flows. These results demonstrate that it is important to know the normal echocardiographic values for German shepherd dogs because there are some characteristics peculiar to this particular breed. The data obtained is expected to be helpful for studies on small animal cardiology.

Two-Dimensional- and M-Mode Echocardiographic Measurements and Indices of Cardiac Function in Spanish Colts and Fillies of Different Age

“…EPSS is considered an useful, practical and easily reproducible clinical index of LV blood inflow and therefore, of the LV function. The higher values for transmitral flow (E/A index) in the older Spanish colts disagree with the results of Muzzi et al [18], presented for German Shepherd dogs of different ages. These last authors did not find any significant change in E/A index in dogs aged between 1 and 15 years.…”

“…In dogs, several authors reported that gender did not exercise an important effect on echocardiographic parameters [10,29]. By contrast, others presented significant differences linked to the sex in some echocardiographic measurements, although the different BW was not considered [13,18]. On the other hand, other researchers documented significant gender differences even after taking BW differences into account [2].…”

Strain and strain rate by two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography in a maned wolf

“…Although no data regarding mitral peak velocity was found in the literature, the velocities of transmitral peak early (E) and transmitral peak late (A) diastole are identical to those found by Pereira et al (2009) and similar to those described in German Shepherd dogs by Muzzi et al (2006) and Schober & Fuentes (2001). An E/A ratio greater than 1 and less than 2 indicates a normal relaxation pattern, as seen in this case.…”

Efeitos de diferentes FiO2 sobre variáveis ecocardiográficas em cães submetidos à infusão contínua de propofol

“…No entanto, não se pode afirmar que se trata de uma anormalidade, pois esse parâmetro está sujeito a variações, conforme descrito por Boon (1998) e Henik (2002). Muzzi et al (2006), ao observarem que cães da raça Pastor alemão apresentavam maior diâmetro interno do ventrículo esquerdo do que outras raças menores, sugeriram que na interpretação de estudos ecocardiográficos pode ser necessário considerar a conformação corporal, a raça e a frequência cardíaca (FC). Em outros estudos com a mesma espécie, a DIVEd e a DIVEs apresentaram correlação significativa com o peso corpóreo (Muzzi et al, 2000;Yamato et al, 2006).…”

“…Neste estudo, os valores basais registrados encontravam-se acima dos descritos na literatura (Henik, 2002), o que pode ser compreendido pelo emprego de animais sem raça definida e de diferentes portes (Boon, 1998;Henik, 2002;Muzzi et al, 2006). Novamente, não foram registradas diferenças significativas para esta variável (Tab.…”