Avian vascular imaging: a review

Vascular diseases in birds are not uncommon, according to findings from postmortem surveys. Although atherosclerosis affecting psittacine birds appears overrepresented, some degenerative, infectious, neoplastic, and congenital vascular diseases may also occur. A variety of imaging diagnostic tools may be used to evaluate the avian vascular system, such as conventional radiography, fluoroscopy, rigid endoscopy, computed tomography, angiography, transcoelomic, and transesophageal ultrasound examination. The wide array of current diagnostic imaging tools offers the clinician capabilities to investigate avian cardiovascular abnormalities. Further research in this domain and constant efforts to apply several, and newer, vascular imaging modalities in clinical cases are needed to expand our avian cardiovascular knowledge base. The ability to diagnose vascular pathologic processes in small avian patients may be improved by recent developments in diagnostic imaging technology.