Equine echocardiography: Can dobutamine infusion correct alterations due to sedation with alpha-2 agonists?

For the echocardiographic examination horses should not be sedated unless absolutely necessary because this alters cardiac dimensions and indices of function. However, some horses do not tolerate the echocardiographic procedure and require sedation to conduct the examination safely and obtain good quality images. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the concurrent infusion of dobutamine in horses sedated with romifidine counteracts the cardiovascular changes observed with sedation alone. Twelve healthy untrained Standardbred mares were used. Three echocardiographic examinations were performed on the same day for each subject: a) without any treatment under resting conditions (WT); b) under sedation with romifidine administered intravenously (RT); c) under sedation with romifidine and concurrent intravenous infusion with dobutamine (RDT). A three-hour washout period was observed between each examination and the order of the examinations was randomly decided by rolling a dice. The measurements on the images recorded were performed offline at the end of the study protocol and at this point the operator was blinded to the horse and treatment administered. Left ventricular internal diameter (LVID) in diastole, left ventricular free wall (LVFW) in systole, and fractional shortening (FS) were higher in the WT group compared with the other two groups. No differences in the other M-mode and B-mode values were observed. A continuous rate infusion of dobutamine did not counteract the alterations caused by sedation and led to similar echocardiographic measurements to those obtained after romifidine administration.