Placental ARFI elastography and biometry evaluation in bitches

Abstract

Placental rigidity and biometry of twelve pregnant bitches were evaluated using B-mode and Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) ultrasonography, performed once daily, from day 15 of gestation until parturition. Specific software (Virtual Touch Tissue Quantification® VTTQ and Virtual Touch Tissue Imaging Quantification® VTTIQ) were used. Values for results for variables were correlated and regression models related to gestational day were used to make evaluations. Maternal-fetal placental thickness increased to day 63 (P < 0.0001; R² = 0.91); maternal placental thickness increased until day 40 (P = 0.0340; R² = 0.54); and fetal placental thickness increased to day 50 (P < 0.0001; R² = 0.83) of gestation. Shear wave velocity (SWV) of the dorsal (P < 0.0010) was greater than lateral, which in turn was greater (P = 0.020) than the ventral area. The SWV of the dorsal area as determined using VTTQ, decreased from day 21 to 35 and increased to day 56 of gestation (P = 0.0291; R² = 0.4021); lateral SWV decreased from day 24 to 45 and increased until the time of parturition (P < 0.001; R² = 0.6055). The SWV of the dorsal area, as determined using VTTIQ, decreased from day 21 to 43 and then increased to day 60 of gestation (P = 0.0016; R² = 0.5075); and ventral area SWV increased from day 21 to 23 and decreased until the time of parturition (P < 0.001; R² = 0.8055). Placental alterations reflect structural and biochemical gestational adaptations and can become useful techniques for obstetrics.

Ultrasound-Based Technologies for the Evaluation of Testicles in the Dog: Keystones and Breakthroughs

“…proposed for the examination of nonfocal alterations of the testis, aiding in infertility aetiology determination [26,163,164]. In veterinary medicine, studies have been conducted to apply UEl to canine and feline normal and pathological conditions in various organs, including the spleen, liver, kidney, prostate [165][166][167][168], adrenal glands [169], skin [170], lymph nodes [133,171], pancreas [172], small intestine mucosa [173], and placenta [174]. The qualitative study on foetal lungs and liver during the final days of intrauterine development were also reported, revealing tissue stiffness changes [175].…”

Edad gestacional en perras mediante las medidas fetales y la organogénesis a través de ecografía

“…En la misma se pudo apreciar la presencia o no de latidos cardíacos del embrión y la frecuencia del mismo, los datos obtenidos indicaron, que sus valores oscilaron entre 203 y 242 latidos por min a lo largo de los cuadros gestacionales, mostrando un claro descenso a medida que los d de gestación fueron aumentando. Resultados similares fueron encontrados en estudios previos de mediciones ultrasonográficas en perras gestantes [2,23,24]. La evaluación reproductiva temprana permite, entre otras cosas, el diagnóstico de la gestación o no post monta o servicio de inseminación artificial en la perra, y además conduce a mejores resultados durante el diagnóstico, seguimiento y evaluación de la preñez en hembras gestantes, pues permite una adecuada estimación del tiempo gestacional y predicción de la edad fetal, así como la fecha de parto, pudiendo prevenir y/o minimizar las pérdidas neonatales, pues el método de imagen ecográfico facilita la toma de decisiones en términos de planificación, por ejemplo de posibles cesáreas [1,12].…”

The frontier of live tissue imaging across space and time

“…NIRS can penetrate up to 20 mm at the cost of reduced spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio, with the best resolution limit being on the order of 10 mm (Scholkmann et al, 2014;Umezawa et al, 2020). Acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging was developed as a non-invasive alternative to atomic force microscopy (AFM), which measures tissue deflection under short harmonic steady-state radiation forces, mapping sample topography and stiffness tens of millimeters deep with spatial resolutions of nanometers (Nightingale, 2011;Rodrigues Simo ˜es et al, 2020).…”

“…For example, penetration depth continues to be a major challenge when imaging solid organs and thick or heterogeneous tissues (Zhang and Yao, 2018;Zhuang et al, 2019). Therefore, investigators may opt to use smaller, less complex model systems to achieve higher spatiotemporal resolution or select technologies to robustly image humans and large mammals, which remains important for translational research (Martı ´nez-Milla et al, 2020;Rodrigues Simo ˜es et al, 2020;Wolfram et al, 2019) because pharmacologic testing and medical device development often rely on large animals as a gold standard for pre-clinical studies.…”