title: Echocardiographic values in clinically healthy adult dogue de Bordeaux dogs.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the influence of body surface area, age and gender on echocardiographic parameters and to establish echocardiographic reference values for dogue de Bordeaux dogs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-nine healthy dogue de Bordeaux dogs of both sexes, older than one year, were recruited and 31 of these were included in the study. The classic linear regression model proved to be the best way to analyse the data. The reference limits of the echocardiographic measurements were calculated using the regression equations. The difference between the mean values of body surface area in both gender groups was evaluated by using one-way ANOVA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A significant correlation was seen between several echocardiographic parameters and body surface area or body surface area and age, and high coefficients of determination (R2) were found. No effect of gender was detected on echocardiographic variables, except for the thickness of the left ventricular posterior wall at end diastole.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The echocardiographic parameters related to body surface area, in the absence of correlation with other independent variables (gender and age) should be interpreted with caution because their variation could be significant for the presence of heart disease. The proposed statistical model allows estimation of echocardiographic parameters in dogue de Bordeaux dogs with different body surface areas and ages.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Veterinary Clinical Science, University of Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Locatelli
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Santini
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Bonometti
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Palermo
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Scarpa
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sala
authors.forename: P G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Brambilla
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001830:Body Surface Area / Q000662:veterinary*; D004285:Dogs / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000662:veterinary*; D005260:Female; D006321:Heart / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D012016:Reference Values; D012737:Sex Factors