Velocidade da onda de pulso arterial em felinos domésticos aparentemente saudáveis por meio da ultrassonografia duplex Doppler

Abstract

The arterial pulse wave velocity is the velocity of the pressure wave generated during ventricular ejection, which travels through the arteries from the heart to the periphery. In humans, duplex Doppler ultrasound (DDU) is considered to be a well diffused, proven accuracy, non-invasive and painless method of obtaining carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWVcf). In veterinary, this parameter is little studied and limits of normality have not yet been defined, especially in the feline species. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the parameters of PWVcf from apparently healthy adult cats through the DDU, correlating them with factors of possible influence such as animal gender, age, weight, systemic systolic blood pressure and heart rate. The reproducibility and repeatability of the method were also observed from the analyzes of the inter and intraobserver measurements of PWVcf, respectively. Data were obtained from 20 apparently healthy cats, males (n = 10) and females (n = 10), with more than 2kg of body weight and variable ages and non-sedated, from the clinical care of the Veterinary Hospital of the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA). No significant differences were observed among the variables studied between males and females. The values of systemic systolic blood pressure and heart rate analyzed were within the normal range for the species and, as well as the weight and ages, did not present significant differences between genders. In addition to determining the physiological mean PWVcf values for feline species, DDU has been shown to be a peripheral vascular evaluation method with efficient reproducibility and repeatability for apparently healthy, non-sedated felines.