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OJVRTM
Online Journal of
Veterinary Research©
Volume 9 (2) :83-94, 2005. Redacted
2018.
Transthoracic
echocardiographic technique for aortic valve annular determination in adult
sheep undergoing prosthetic valve implantation
Falkner P1, Millner H1, Nelson
D1, Rakow N1, Shecterle LM2, St. Cyr JA1
1Physiological
Research Laboratories, 2Biologics, Therapeutics and Diagnostics,
Divisions of Medtronic, Inc., Mpls, MN, 55448 Work
was completed at Physiological Research Laboratories, Medtronic, Inc.,
Minneapolis, MN, USA and was not supported by any grant.
ABSTRACT
Falkner P Millner H, Nelson D, Rakow
N, Shecterle LM, St. Cyr JA Transthoracic
echocardiographic technique for aortic valve annular determination in adult
sheep undergoing prosthetic valve implantation, Onl J
Vet Res., 9 (2):83-94, 2005. The placement of prosthetic heart valves in sheep are commonly
performed for pre-clinical investigation and studies have customarily implanted
only one or two different valve sizes/study. Because of this intentional
restriction in valve sizes for implantation, a reliable pre-operative
determination of the animal’s annulus is crucial to appropriately matching the
prosthetic valve with the animal’s measured annulus at the time of
insertion. Without accurate pre-operative valve sizing, many animals are
rejected/sacrificed at the time of surgery because of the valve-annular
discrepancy. Transthoracic echocardiography can achieve a pre-operative
annular assessment; however, adequate evaluation and reproducibility of this
necessary annular data has been lacking in adult sheep. The described
transthoracic echocardiographic technique in adult sheep in this paper has
provided reliable annular data prior to surgical prosthetic valve
implantation. Further, additional cardiac structure and hemodynamic
parameters from this echocardiographic assessment has also been found to be
extremely beneficial.
Key words: echocardiography, valve’s annulus, animal model, prosthetic valve
implantation