Echocardiography is one of the foremost vital devices in veterinary cardiology. It is a safe, non-invasive, important diagnostic imaging instrument that enables the heart to be morphologically and clinically measured in real-time. It has been used in many animals to determine heart parameters so the purpose of this study was to determine the standardized normal echocardiographic ranges in normal healthy Egyptian donkeys with a special focus on the influence of sex and body weight.
Echocardiographic examination has done for 42 adult healthy Egyptian donkeys, which were 20 males and 22 females, the age ranged between 3 and 12 years old and the weight ranged between 180260 kg. Body condition score ranged between 4 to 6. The echocardiographic measurements of different heart dimensions were represented by mean± SD: LVFWs (cm) 1.98±0.22 , LVIDs (cm) 2.92±0.45, IVSs (cm) 2.2±0.21, LVFWd (cm) 1.52±0.18, LVIDd (cm) 4.64±0.39, IVSd (cm) 1.22±0.18, RVIDd (cm) 3.49±0.29 and AOd (cm) 3.44±0.31 and Heart function indices as follows: FS (%) 46.44±4.88 EF (%) 78.27±5.20. and there is a significant increase in the LVIDd and IVSd during diastole in males rather than females and there is a positive correlation between echocardiographic parameters and body weight.We concluded that the body weight as a variable has a positive correlation with the echocardiographic measurements and sex as a variable has a moderate influence in some parameters in males rather than females and the variables will assist us to make an accurate diagnosis, differential diagnosis and prognosis of heart diseases in Egyptian donkeys.
Key words: Echocardiography, sex, body weight, Cardiac diseases, Egyptian donkeys
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