When attempting to carry out veterinary ultrasound, it is important to consider how best to examine the patient with minimal distress. Whilst some patients are able to be assessed in a ‘live’ state, others may require some form of sedation. The paper by Choi SY et al, ‘Contrast enhanced ultrasonography of kidney in conscious and anesthetized beagle dogs’, Sep 28th 2015, J Vet Med Sci, [Epub ahead of print], looks at using a specific type of ultrasound, termed contrast-enhanced (CEUS) in respect to the canine kidney. If you would like to read the full-version of this paper please click here. This type of ultrasonography is quick to perform and may require one form of anaesthesia (injecting anaesthetic versus inhaling anaesthetic), a theory which served as the focal point for this study in Beagles. Two different combinations of injectable anaesthetics were administered for the purposes of this research and are discussed in more detail below.

This type of ultrasonography allowed for results to be observed irrespective of the awareness state of the Beagle, with results showing that when anaesthetic was not delivered, contrast enhancement was visible in both the renal cortex and medulla, although the former was described as ‘more hyperechoic’ relative to the latter. In addition, contrast enhancement of the medulla took longer than that of the cortex and was described as both ‘coarse and hypoechoic’ following treatment.

When this procedure was carried out in dogs subjected to anaesthesia, whilst the actual appearance following CEUS did not appear to differ from that seen in ‘live’ dogs, the paper explains that there was a delay in one part of the protocol. It should be noted that the anaesthetics referred to here are both tiletamine-zolazepam and/or just medetomidine. Beagles given medetomidine only displayed a postponement in enhancement in two different factors relative to the ‘live’ animals in both the cortex and medulla.

Consequently, introducing anaesthesia did not appear to considerably alter the outcome of treatment in the cortex, although the same could not be said with respect to the medulla. It is with this in mind that practitioners may only wish to use anaesthesia in situations whereby it is deemed appropriate/necessary and the cortex is the region that requires examining. This study may also act as a guide as to what would be expected for any future canine CEUS examinations carried out where anaesthetic is required via injection. If you would like any information regarding veterinary ultrasound please feel free to contact us.