Small Animal Cardiology

To perform a full cardiac ultrasound examination, real-time 2-D and M-mode ultrasound are essential. The absence of a Doppler facility may reduce the information that can be obtained and may leave uncertainties about the source of abnormal blood flow, but there are many cardiac diseases that do not require Doppler ultrasound to reach a diagnosis, e.g. pericardial and myocardial diseases.

A sector scanner with a small transducer footprint is required to image between rib spaces and allow good flexibility to obtain the various imaging planes. Ideally a choice of variable receive frequency transducers, from 4.0/5.0/6.0MHz to 6.5/7.5/8.5MHz is necessary to image the range of sizes that exist with cats and dogs.

A record of echocardiographic examinations can be made using a video recording and/or a thermal printer or photography. A suitable video recorder should be able to scroll slowly and freeze on an image for closer study.

Scanners which feature cine memory to provide a freeze frame of every image for the last few seconds to allow the whole heart cycle to be examined and which can be upgraded to include a Doppler facility are preferable.