Evaluation of influence of anesthetics on canine stroke volume and feasibility of ACT using echocardiography

Abstract

Stroke volume (SV) is an important parameter for monitoring of a critically ill animal and is echocardiographically measured using the modified Simpson's method, automated contour tracking (ACT) method and left ventricular outflow method. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of anesthesia (isoflurane) on the SV during echocardiographic examination and to evaluate the feasibility of ACT method for measuring the stroke volume without anesthesia (conscious state). Ten clinically healthy adult Beagle dogs (3 male and 7 female, weighing 6.6- 10.8 kg, aged 2-3 years old) were enrolled. Our study found that the dogs anesthetized have a significantly lower SV, compared to the SV of dogs unanesthetized, regardless of methods measuring SV. In addition, in the dogs without anesthesia, the SV measured by ACT method was significantly lower than the other two methods. This result implies that the anesthesia may significantly lower the SV. Thus, the measurement of SV under anesthesia may not be adequate in veterinary field. Furthermore because the ACT method measured SV significantly lower than other two methods, this method may be inappropriate for measuring SV in even conscious dogs.