Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 14, 2026
Echocardiographic Assessment of Cardiac Anatomy and Function in Adult Rats
Published on: December 13, 2019
Echocardiography alone allows the determination of heart failure stages in rats with pressure overload
Yasushige Shingu1, Paulo A Amorim, T Dung Nguyen
1Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
Insights
Transthoracic echocardiography can reliably stage heart failure (HF) in rats with chronic pressure overload. This method allows reproducible determination of cardiac dysfunction progression after aortic constriction.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Research
- Animal Models
- Echocardiography
Background:
- No standardized method exists for assessing animal contractile function.
- Chronic pressure overload models are crucial for studying heart failure (HF).
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate transthoracic echocardiography for staging hypertrophy and HF in rats with chronic pressure overload.
- To establish a reproducible method for assessing cardiac function in preclinical HF models.
Main Methods:
- Created chronic pressure overload in rats via aortic constriction.
- Performed serial transthoracic echocardiography at multiple time points (1-20 weeks).
- Correlated echocardiographic findings with heart/lung weights and clinical signs of HF.
Main Results:
- Significant cardiac hypertrophy observed within 1 week.
- Diastolic dysfunction appeared at 6 weeks, followed by systolic dysfunction at 10 weeks.
- At 20 weeks, dilation and decreased cardiac index were evident, correlating with lung-to-body weight ratio and clinical HF signs.
Conclusions:
- Transthoracic echocardiography alone enables reproducible staging of heart failure.
- This technique is valuable for assessing cardiac dysfunction progression in rat models of aortic constriction.
Background:
There is currently no standard for the assessment of contractile function in animals. We aimed to determine whether transthoracic echocardiography in rats with chronic pressure overload allows determining the stage of hypertrophy and heart failure (HF).
Methods:
Pressure overload was created by placement of a metal clip around the thoracic aorta at a weight of 40 to 50 g. After 1, 2, 6, 10, and 20 weeks, we performed echocardiography according to the American Heart Association guidelines (n = 26, four to six rats for each time point). We also obtained heart, lung, and body weights and regularly evaluated clinical signs of HF.
Results:
: Pressure overload caused significant hypertrophy within 1 week. Contractile function was normal until 6 weeks when diastolic dysfunction appeared. After 10 weeks of pressure overload, systolic function decreased. At 20 weeks, hearts were dilated and cardiac index was decreased. These findings correlated with increased lung-to-body weight ratio after 6 weeks and clinical signs of HF after 20 weeks.
Conclusion:
Echocardiography alone allows the reproducible determination of HF stages after aortic constriction in rats.
