Echocardiographic Measurement of Systolic Time Intervals in Healthy Great Dane Dogs

Objective- to determine the range of systolic times intervals using pulsed-wave doppler and m-mode echocardiography in normal, healthy great dane dogs. design- descriptive study. animals- thirty healthy great dane dogs. procedures- this study examined 30 clinically healthy great dane dogs by the twodimensional, m-mode and pulsed-wave doppler echocardiography. the dogs were awake and unsedated. the following parameters were measured on the both pulsed-wave doppler and m-mode echocardiographic images: pre - ejection period (pep), left ventricular ejection time (lvet), ratio of pep to lvet (pep/lvet) and the total electrical-mechanical systole (qavc). acceleration time of aortic flow (at) was also measured by doppler mode. results- the following values have been acquired: pep = 0.067 ± 0.010 s; lvet = 0.188 ± 0.011 s; qavc = 0.254 ± 0.016 s and pep/lvet = 0.354 ± 0.054 measured by mmode echocardiography and pep = 0.062 ± 0.009 s; lvet = 0.193 ± 0.007 s; qavc = 0.256 ± 0.011s; pep/lvet = 0.323 ± 0.051 and at = 0.080 ± 0.107 s measured by doppler echocardiography. conclusion and clinical relevance- on doppler mode, there was a significant correlation between the body weight and pep and pep/lvet. m-mode echocardiography showed significant correlation between the body weight and body surface area and qavc. results of this study revealed the importance of determination of breed-specific echocardiographic parameters and indices, and evaluating of measured values with rangeusing same method for accurate diagnosis.