Abstract
BackgroundRight ventricular (RV) volume and function are important diagnostic and prognostic factors in dogs with primary or secondary right-sided heart failure. The complex shape of the right ventricle and its retrosternal position make the quantification of its volume difficult. For that reason, only few studies exist, which deal with the determination of RV volume parameters. In human medicine cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI) is considered to be the reference technique for RV volumetric measurement (Nat Rev Cardiol 7(10):551-563, 2010), but cardiac computed tomography (CCT) and three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) are other non-invasive methods feasible for RV volume quantification. The purpose of this study was the comparison of 3DE and CCT with CMRI, the gold standard for RV volumetric quantification.Results3DE showed significant lower and CCT significant higher right ventricular volumes than CMRI. Both techniques showed very good correlations (R > 0.8) with CMRI for the volumetric parameters end-diastolic volume (EDV) and end-systolic volume (ESV). Ejection fraction (EF) and stroke volume (SV) were not different when considering CCT and CMRI, whereas 3DE showed a significant higher EF and lower SV than CMRI. The 3DE values showed excellent intra-observer variability (<3%) and still acceptable inter-observer variability (<13%).ConclusionCCT provides an accurate image quality of the right ventricle with comparable results to the reference method CMRI. CCT overestimates the RV volumes; therefore, it is not an interchangeable method, having the disadvantage as well of needing general anaesthesia. 3DE underestimated the RV-Volumes, which could be explained by the worse image resolution. The excellent correlation between the methods indicates a close relationship between 3DE and CMRI although not directly comparable. 3DE is a promising technique for RV volumetric quantification, but further studies in awake dogs and dogs with heart disease are necessary to evaluate its usefulness in veterinary cardiology.
Highlights
Right ventricular (RV) volume and function are important diagnostic and prognostic factors in dogs with primary or secondary right-sided heart failure
All investigated dogs were clinically healthy with blood values within normal range
During echocardiographical examination in four dogs minimal mitral valve regurgitation was found with a reflux smaller than 20% of the left atrium using colour Doppler, and with a broken profile in early systole using continuous-wave Doppler
Summary
Right ventricular (RV) volume and function are important diagnostic and prognostic factors in dogs with primary or secondary right-sided heart failure. CMRI is regarded as the gold standard for RV volume and function assessment [18] because of its high temporal and spatial resolution and its detailed soft tissue contrast, resulting in high accuracy and reproducibility of the measurements. For this reason, CMRI is considered to be the reference method in many studies investigating RV function [9,10,19,20]. A more recent study, determining the RV mass in dogs, found accurate results for in vivo CMRI values in comparison to ex vivo measurements [22]
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