Renal and Hepatic Ultrasonography in the Neonatal Dog

Abstract

The ultrasonographic appearance and size of the liver and kidneys of a litter of five pups was examined from birth until six months of age, and compared with a group of five adults of the same breed. Increased renal cortical echogenicity was evident for the first two weeks of life. Up to 12 weeks of age renal size was relatively large in comparison with body size parameters. After 12 weeks measures of renal size were proportionate with body size and were not significantly different from adult dogs. The neonatal liver had a similar ultrasonographic appearance to the adult, although in the first eight weeks parenchymal echogenic stippling was less coarse and portal veins were less well delineated. Measures of hepatic length were inaccurate during the first four weeks after birth due to changes in body conformation. From eight weeks to six months of age these measures were proportionate with body size, although the ratios differed from adult dogs.

Study of development changes in kidneys of dogs by using 2D and 3D ultrasonography

“…In 2-D ultrasonogram the renal sinus was identified as a moderately echogenic area in the centre at 15 th day of age. Similar to findings of England (1996) at this stage where the vessels at the hilus of kidney were not clear. Details of the renal hilus are highly dependent on the quality of the ultrasound equipment used, transducer frequency and patient factors such as obesity.…”

“…The circumference was not measured in the previous reports of renal parameters measurements. The difference between parameters of right and left kidneys were not remarkable indicating both the kidneys grow at the same rate confirms findings of England, (1996); Sampio and Araujo (2002) and Singh, (2004) and However, Barr, (1990) found small but significant differences in the dimensions of left and right kidneys. The cortex and medullary thickness were also increased linearly in both the kidney.…”

“…The echogenicity of cortex was found to be increased with age and this increase was more pronounced up to four month of age. England (1996) observed that the kidney imaged from one month of age onwards was similar in th day of age. Cortex hyperechoic (black arrow) and medulla anechoic (yellow arrow).…”

“…Echogenic renal diverticulae started appearing in the medulla from one month of age. Singh (2004) also observed renal diverticula at three months of age where as England (1996) reported the echogenic renal diverticulae radiated from the renal pelvis at one month of age.…”

Reestablishment of radiographic kidney size in Miniature Schnauzer dogs

“…For practical term, the use of the ultrasonographic ratio of kidney length to aortic luminal diameter (K/Ao) with 5.5–9.1 of a reference range in normal dogs is a consistent and simple way to assess kidney size [22]. However, the difficulty in obtaining a standard plane accurately is the greatest limitation of the ultrasonographic evaluation of kidney size [1, 3, 5, 9, 17, 18, 24, 31]. …”