Echocardiographic measurements of right heart size and function in healthy horses.
Authors: Decloedt A, De Clercq D, Ven Sofie S, Van Der Vekens N, Sys S, Broux B, van Loon G
Journal: Equine veterinary journal
Summary
# Echocardiographic assessment of right heart size and function in horses: establishing reliable measurement protocols Right ventricular function has received minimal attention in equine cardiology despite its clinical relevance, prompting Decloedt and colleagues to establish standardised echocardiographic protocols for measuring right heart dimensions and performance in healthy horses. The researchers performed repeated echocardiographic examinations on ten untrained trotters using both standard and novel imaging planes, with two sonographers and two independent observers acquiring two-dimensional, M-mode, Doppler and tissue tracking measurements to evaluate reproducibility. Two-dimensional and M-mode measurements of right ventricular, atrial and pulmonary artery size demonstrated low variability (coefficient of variation <15%), whilst functional assessments showed greater variability depending on technique—two-dimensional speckle tracking proved most reliable for strain analysis, whereas tissue Doppler imaging measurements, particularly peak deformation values, exhibited substantially higher variability. These findings provide equine practitioners with evidence-based guidance on which echocardiographic parameters offer sufficient repeatability for clinical use, suggesting that structural right heart assessment and speckle tracking–derived function metrics are sufficiently reproducible for monitoring individual horses over time, whilst tissue Doppler timing measurements may prove more reliable than peak velocity or strain rate calculations when evaluating right ventricular performance in clinical settings.
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Practical Takeaways
- •Echocardiographic assessment of right heart size and function is now standardized and reliable in horses, enabling consistent clinical evaluation across different sonographers
- •Two-dimensional and M-mode measurements are the most reproducible methods for assessing RV size; use these techniques preferentially over TDI for functional assessment
- •Right heart function can be monitored during performance or disease investigation using these validated echocardiographic protocols
Key Findings
- •Most two-dimensional and M-mode measurements of RV, right atrial and pulmonary artery size showed low variability (CV<15%)
- •Two-dimensional, M-mode and pulsed wave Doppler measurements of RV function demonstrated low to moderate variability
- •Right ventricular functional measurements by 2DST showed low variability except for segmental strain rate
- •TDI measurements showed low to high variability with better reproducibility for timing measurements than peak measurements