Evidence of Echocardiography Validity in Model Experiments on Small Animals

Abstract

Dynamic echocardiographic monitoring in rats subjected to forced alcoholization showed the formation of disorders in intracardiac hemodynamics characteristic of ethanol cardiomyopathy formed by the end of 24-week continuous ethanol consumption. The results of echocardiographic monitoring were confirmed by histological and morphometric studies demonstrating fatty infiltration of the myocardium pathognomonic for this condition and bifocal dilatation of cardiac ventricles. These results persuasively demonstrate that echocardiographic studies on small animals are valid and can be used for search for cardiotropic drugs and studies of the mechanisms of their activities.

Echocardiographic parameters in different age and sex of Sprague-Dawley rats under isoflurane anesthesia

“…When isoflurane was used for anesthesia, EF and FS were higher than the human reference. Kryzhanovskii et al (2016) found higher EF and FS in male rats than our study when chloral hydrate was used for anesthesia. Weytjens et al (2006) measured similar results to our experiment when pentobarbital was used.…”

Effect of Postnatal Epigallocatechin-Gallate Treatment on Cardiac Function in Mice Prenatally Exposed to Alcohol

“…We performed no pathomorphological studies in our study. However, in a study carried out with alcoholic rats, correlations were found between the reduction in the thickness of the left ventricular wall, the decrease in EF and FS, and the dilatation of the cardiac cavities (assessed by echocardiography) with morphologic findings in the anatomy of the heart (bifocal dilatation of the cardiac ventricles and fatty infiltration of the myocardium) [75]. Furthermore, another study carried out with PAE mice, which evaluated cardiac left ventricular indexes at postnatal Day 60, observed mild cardiac hypertrophy in PAE animals [46].…”