Doppler ultrasonographic assessment of maternal and fetal arteries during normal feline gestation

BLANCO PG; RODRÍGUEZ R; PONS ER; DE LA SOTA PE; ARIAS DO; GOBELLO C

Whistler

Simposio; 7th International Symposium on Canine and Feline Reproduction; 2012

OBJECTIVES AND METHODS. The aim of this study was to describe resistance index (RI) of some pregnant cat arteries which have either controversial (1,2) or no previous reports i.e. uterine, umbilical, fetal abdominal aorta, fetal renal and fetal internal carotid. For this purpose, twelve, 1 to 4 years of age mixed-bred, pregnant queens were recruited. Color and pulsed-wave Doppler evaluations of uterine arteries (Toshiba Core Vision Pro, Japan, 8-MHz linear-array transducer) were performed every ten days from mating to parturition (defined as day 65; 3). Umbilical artery, fetal abdominal aorta, renal and internal carotid were assessed with the same frequency from their first detection up to parturition. To minimize variability, three uniform consecutive waveforms were recorded by a trained operator. Peak systolic velocity (PSV) and end diastolic velocity (EDV) were measured. Resistance index [(PSV-EDV)/PSV] was automatically calculated in all vessels (4). This study was approved by the Faculty Institutional Care and Animal Use Committee. Data is shown as mean ± SEM. For each artery RI repeated measures ANOVA followed by Tukey test was carried out to evaluate the effect of time (SPSS 18.0; SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA). The level of significance was set on 0.05. RESULTS. Ultrasonographic evaluations were successfully performed in all the queens in periods no longer than 30 minutes. None of the animals in this study delivered via C-section or presented dystocia. Resistance index of uterine artery decreased in the course of the study from day 20 onwards (P