Doppler ultrasonographic assessment of uterine artery in abnormal canine pregnancy: preliminar report.

BLANCO PG; RUBE A; PRÍO V; PONS E; ARIAS D; GOBELLO C

Louvain-La-Neuve

Congreso; 7th European Veterinary Society for Small Animal Reproduction Congress.; 2010

Veterinary Society for Small Animal Reproduction

Introduction and aim. Resistance index (RI) of uterine artery progressively decreases throughout normal canine gestation [1]. In pregnant women, increasing RI indicates a high risk of adverse obstetric outcome associated with fetal or perinatal death [2]. An experimental canine model of abnormal gestation suggested that RI could also be a predictor of compromised pregnancy and impending abortion in this species [3]. However, no information is available on spontaneous cases of pathological gestation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe the changes of uterine artery RI in abnormal canine pregnancy. Materials and Methods. Fourteen pure-bred pregnant bitches, 1?8 years of age, weighing 3?40 kg were recruited. In this preliminary study, were included Brucellosis-negative cases in which pregnancy interrupted between days 52 to 60 (from estimated LH peak, n = 4) or that presented perinatal death > 60% of the litter (n = 3). Seven pregnant bitches, which delivered healthy puppies at term, were used as normal controls. Color and pulsed-wave Doppler examinations of uterine arteries (Toshiba Core Vision Pro, Japan) with an 8-MHz linear-array transducer were carried out every ten days to calculate RI from day 20 to 50 of gestation. Values of RI were transformed to percentage change and then compared between groups (normal vs. abnormal) by repeated measures ANOVA followed by Tukey comparison test (SPSS 17.0, SPSS Inc. Chicago, IL, USA). Results. Normal bitches presented a decreasing RI pattern throughout the study while in the abnormal animals RI increased from day 40 onwards (Fig 1). An interaction between time and group was found (P < 0.01). On day 50, percentage RI change differed between groups (P < 0.01). Conclusion. These findings are in line with those in women [2] and with our experimental model of abnormal canine gestation [3], where RI progressively increases up to abortion. It is concluded that, in dogs, augmentation of uterine artery RI seems to be a useful predictor of adverse pregnancy outcome.