Studies on Normal and Abnormal Heart in Rabbits Using Echocardiography

Ultrasonography, a modality of diagnosting imaging technique, is characterized by being non-invasive, and biologically safe. It thus may be repeated for follow up. In human medicine, ultrasonography is in routine use. Veterinary diagnostics is lagging behIn this work we examined 10 rabbits to elucidate some anatomic pointsrelated to echocardiography. These included chest x-ray, determination of the thickness of ventral chest wall, exposing the heart in situ for orientation. Serialshort-axis (transverse) sections were done in the heart from the apex to the base to study the thickness of the cardiac chambers. Lastly the relation of the heart to intercostal spaces was studied using a frozen section in the rabbit chest in the thirdintercostal space. Forty New Zealand white rabbits were examined echo cardiographically within 20 months, under sedation with Ketalar.Five rabbits had cardiac affections, as shown echocardiographically. The twomost commonly used forms of ultrasonography employed for cardiac examination are real time (two dimensional) and M-mode (motion) echo cardiography.