ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1548417
This article is part of the Research TopicOutstanding Advances in Veterinary Diagnostic Ultrasonography: Novel Milestones in Disease Detection, Prediction, and TreatmentView all 12 articles
Retrospective evaluation of left ventricular eccentricity index in the assessment of precapillary pulmonary hypertension in dogs (2017-2021): 145 cases
Provisionally accepted
Nicolas Graziano1*
Kris Gommeren1
Annelies Valcke1
Priscilla Burnotte1
Dave Beeston2
Tom Walker3Rebecca Gele3Marine Lekane1
Anne Christine Merveille1- 1University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
- 2Willows Veterinary Centre, Solihull, West Midlands, United Kingdom
- 3BluePearl Pet Hospital Sandy Springs, Georgia, Sandy Springs, United States
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To determine interobserver variability of left ventricular eccentricity indices measurements in systole (EIs), diastole (EId) and at maximum flattening (EIm) by emergency and critical care residents on prerecorded cineloops in dogs with or without pulmonary hypertension. To assess whether these EI measurements allow to identify dogs with right heart changes compatible with moderate to severe pulmonary hypertension (PAH).Multicenter, retrospective, case–control study from 2017 to 2021. Medical records of dogs with stage B1 myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) and dogs diagnosed with precapillary pulmonary hypertension (PCPH) via echocardiograms were reviewed. Dogs were categorized by a cardiologist into 5 groups (normal, B1 MMVD, mild, moderate, and severe PCPH) based on Doppler pulmonary pressure gradients and right heart morphology. Four blinded emergency and critical care residents measured EIs, EId and EIm.One hundred and forty-five client-owned dogs were included. Interobserver agreement was strong, with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.737 (95% CI: 0.621–0.852) across all eccentricity indices for the full study population and 0.768 (0.642–0.856) for the PAH group specifically. EIs, EId, and EIm were significantly higher in the PAH group compared to control and MMVD groups (p < 0.0001). The differentiation between moderate-to-severe and mild/absent PAH by EIs, EId, and EIm resulted in AUCs of 0.738, 0.834, and 0.766, with cut-off values of 1.40, 1.34, and 1.28, respectively. A grey zone approach identified 90% sensitivity for EIs (1.12), EId (1.15), and EIm (1.23), and specificity for EIs (2.27), EId (1.32), and EIm (2.1) to rule out or diagnose moderate-to-severe PAH.This study showed good inter-observer agreement of EIs, EIm, and EId measurement by ECC residents on prerecorded loops. EI allowed good identification of dogs with moderate to severe PAH by ECC residents.
Keywords: Echocardiography, Eccentricity index, pulmonary arterial hypertension, Point of care ultrasound (POCUS), emergency
Received: 19 Dec 2024; Accepted: 14 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Graziano, Gommeren, Valcke, Burnotte, Beeston, Walker, Gele, Lekane and Merveille. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Nicolas Graziano, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
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