title: Measurements of the pulmonary vasculature on thoracic radiographs in healthy dogs compared to dogs with mitral regurgitation.
abstract: This study reassessed the previously reported radiographic method of comparing pulmonary vessels versus rib diameter for differentiating healthy dogs and dogs with mitral regurgitation. The width of the right cranial pulmonary artery and vein at the fourth rib level, right caudal pulmonary artery and vein at the ninth rib level, and the diameters of the fourth rib and ninth rib were measured in prospectively recruited healthy dogs (n = 40) and retrospectively recruited dogs with mitral regurgitation (n = 58). In healthy dogs, the pulmonary arteries and accompanying veins were similar in size. The cranial lobar vessels were smaller than the fourth rib. However, 67.5% of right caudal pulmonary artery diameters and 65% of vein diameters were larger than the ninth rib in healthy dogs. The right caudal pulmonary vein diameter in dogs with mitral regurgitation, particularly those within moderate and severe grades, was significantly larger than that in healthy dogs (P < 0.001). The comparative method used to detect enlargement of the right caudal pulmonary vein relative to the accompanying pulmonary artery had the highest sensitivity (80.2%) and specificity (82.5%) for predicting mitral regurgitation. A cut-off of 1.22 when applying the ninth rib criterion had better specificity (73%) than the most used value ≤ 1 (89.7% sensitivity and 63.8% specificity), although it has less sensitivity (73%). We recommend using the accompanying pulmonary artery and 1.22 × the diameter of the ninth rib as a radiographic criterion for assessing the size of the right caudal pulmonary vein and differentiating healthy dogs from those with mitral regurgitation.
authors.affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, 500-757.
authors.forename: Heejin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Oui
authors.forename: Juyeon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Seoyeon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Keh
authors.forename: Gahyun
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Sunghoon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.forename: Hyunwook
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Junghee
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: Jihye
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Choi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D008168:Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D008944:Mitral Valve Insufficiency / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000662:veterinary*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011651:Pulmonary Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011859:Radiography; D012189:Retrospective Studies
keywords: dog; mitral regurgitation; pulmonary vasculature; radiography