Initial experience with high frequency ultrasound for the newborn C57BL mouse

The mouse has become a powerful genetic tool for studying genes involved in cardiac development and congenital heart disease. Many of the most severe congenital heart defects are ductal-dependent, resulting in neonatal lethality. Recent advances in ultrasound technology provide an opportunity for the use of high-frequency transducers to characterize the cardiac anatomy and physiology of the newborn mouse. In this study, we define limited normative values for cardiac structure and function in the C57BL newborn mouse. Specifically, we define normal values for 19 indices derived from standard echocardiographic views. This study demonstrates that transthoracic echocardiography using a 40-MHz high-frequency transducer is a safe and reliable noninvasive modality for the delineation of cardiac anatomy and physiology in the newborn mouse.