Comparison Between Echocardiographic and Computed Tomographic Measurements of the Right Heart in Healthy Dogs.

Echocardiographic evaluation of the right side of the heart is limited by inherent difficulties in accessing views, and thus a variety of other diagnostic modalities, including computed tomography, have been proposed for right heart evaluation. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to review previously reported data and add computed tomography as a new tool for assessment of the right side of the heart, using echocardiography as a reference. Physical examination, electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, and thoracic computed tomography images were acquired in 6 healthy dogs. Structural assessments of the right atrium, the right ventricle, and the pulmonary artery were performed. Data from computed tomography were compared with conventional echocardiography. The agreement between the techniques was satisfactory for most of the evaluated parameters. There was no correlation between tomographic variables and weight and heart rate. Males had a higher mean basal right ventricle diameter (20.92 ± 1.45) compared to females (16.84 ± 0.03). There was a statistically significant difference between the medium right ventricle, right atrium, right ventricle free wall, aorta, pulmonary artery, and left ventricle diameters and the right ventricle/ left ventricle ratio between computed tomography and ultrasound. Good repeatability was found for the tomographic analyses, and the coefficients of variation were similar for most variables between the intraobserver and interobserver analyses. Computed tomography-derived measurements are simple to perform and have good repeatability and satisfactory agreement for most of the parameters evaluated on the echocardiogram. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]