Diastolic and Systolic Longitudinal Myocardial Velocities of Healthy Racing Pigeons (Columba livia f. domestica) Measured by Tissue Doppler Imaging

Abstract

Tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) is a noninvasive sonographic method of acquiring and quantifying myocardial velocities. This technique is used in human and small animal medicine to diagnose cardiac diseases. Using this technique, we evaluated the longitudinal myocardial peak velocities of the interventricular septum, and the left and right ventricular free walls in the systole and diastole in 40 racing pigeons. The TDI examinations confirmed the movement of the heart base toward the apex in the systole and away from the apex in the diastole. Inhomogeneous distribution of the myocardial velocities with a statistically significant velocity gradient from the basal to the apical myocardial segments was found. The left and right free walls have significantly higher myocardial velocities than the myocardium of the septum. The myocardial velocities during active ventricular filling were significantly higher in the right ventricular free wall than in the left one. The validation of the method resulted in coefficients of variation between 3% and 33% for the systolic and 3% and 75% for the diastolic individual myocardial velocities. Weekly repeated measurements resulted in variation coefficients between 3% and 45% for systolic and diastolic myocardial velocities, respectively.

Influence of anesthesia with isoflurane on myocardial velocities of racing pigeons (Columba livia f. domestica)

“…A similar effect of anesthesia on the systolic and diastolic myocardial velocities can also be seen in mammals [24] [31]. The general distribution of the myocardial velocities in the anesthetized heart corresponds to the conditions in the conscious pigeons [3]. In anesthetized pigeons, there is also a velocity gradient from the basal segments with the highest velocities to the apical segments with very low velocities.…”

“…In these conscious birds, there was no correlation between peak myocardial velocities and heart rate in the range of 130 to 274 bpm. It could be assumed that in a study with higher heart rates and more animals a correlation can be statistically shown [3]. In contrast, in anesthetized pigeons, there was a negative correlation between the heart rates (range 78 - 215 bpm) and systolic peak myocardial velocities (S' wave) of the left free wall, the septum, and, to a lesser extent, of the right free wall.…”

“…The echocardiographic examination was performed during the stage of surgical anesthesia with the failure of the toe pinch and Introduction Tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) is a new technique to measure the myocardial velocities in avian medicine. First diastolic and systolic myocardial velocities are described in some avian species, especially the racing pigeon [1][2] [3]. Myocardial velocities are used in human and small animal medicine to evaluate the left and right heart function and to diagnose heart diseases [4][5][6] [7][8].…”