Using Echocardiograms For Research In Small Animals

The use of echocardiograms for research in small animals is challenging. The test causes stress for small animals, like mice, and stress can distort cardiac measurements. Also, a mouse has a very small heart and a quick heartbeat that ranges between 500 and 700 beats per minute. The mouse heart's position, additionally, makes its parts difficult to image.

Echocardiograms are ultrasounds images of the heart. One-dimensional, or M-mode, and two-dimensional, or 2D, images provide a good measurement of the heart's chambers. The images can detect movement, thickness, and size. The 2D image is actually a slice, or a cross-section, of the heart as it is beating.

Doppler adds another dimension to the images. It helps to pinpoint the velocity and the direction of blood flow. It can identify, for instance, places where blood leaks in the heart valves. It can also identify narrowing, or stenosis, in the valves.

Echocardiograms are done in vivo, which means on living animals. The test are most reliable when the mouse is not anesthetized. This is because anesthesia can slow the heart to about half its normal beats per minute. To prevent stress in mice, technicians perform the test for several days before their actual test. On the day of the echocardiogram, they complete several protocols. They remove the mouse's chest hair with a depilatory agent. They also place limb leads on the mouse's wrists and ankles.

Researchers primarily capture images of a mouse's left ventricle. Because apical views can be tough to obtain, diastolic function in the right ventricle is hard to see. Researchers can readily observe the composition of the left ventricle. The test can detect any atherosclerosis, lesions, or other cardiac disturbances within the structure.

Researchers have conducted many experiments on mice. These experiments have expanded our understanding of diseases in the human heart. In one test, researchers took echocardiographic images of the hearts of gestating mice fetuses. By doing this, they were able to watch congenital heart disease as it formed. In another test, researchers studied a beta-2 receptor associated with an enzyme found in failing heart tissue. After doing an echocardiogram, they discovered that high occurrences of the receptor correlated with a decrease in heart disease.

Mice are not the only animals used in tests. For example, researchers have recently begun to turn to hamsters. This happens because hamsters more closely imitate human heart conditions. Echocardiograms also aid veterinarians, who use them to manage feline and canine heart problems.

Echocardiograph machines have to be set carefully to study small hearts. They should have a spatial resolution of no more than 0.5 millimeters. The frame rate should be about 150 hertz, and the sweep rate should be 200-300 hertz.

Research on small animals has provided crucial information about many human diseases. Echocardiograms for research in small animals are essential. They provide information on heart disease that can easily be translated to humans. Continuing the research can aid doctors as they grapple to understand cardiovascular disease. It can also help doctors who struggle to prevent and cure one of our leading causes of death.


------

One of the top digital imaging companies providing modalities specifically designed for preclinical research such as biomarker, in vivo imaging, in vivo testing micro imaging, mouse heart, high-resolution imaging, scientific digital imaging, digital imaging system.