RADIOGRAPHIC MEASUREMENT OF CARDIAC SIZE AND OTHER COELOMIC ORGANS IN WILD RAINBOW LORIKEETS (TRICHOGLOSSUS...

This retrospective study aims to determine physiologic measurements of major organs (heart, liver, and kidneys) on radiographs of wild rainbow lorikeets (Trichoglossus moluccanus) to define reference intervals for each organ. High quality radiographs of wild rainbow lorikeets that had no major clinical or radiographic lesions were selected for this study. The widths of the heart, liver, thorax, and coelomic cavity along with the height and length of the kidneys, and the width of the femur and the length of the first coccygeal vertebrae were measured from 45 radiographic studies. Correlations between the measured structures and with the thoracic and coelomic cavity were explored. The cardiac width was 63% (55%-71%) of the thoracic width, liver width resulted in 74% (52-90%) of the coelomic width. Kidney length and width resulted in 73% (61-87%) and 11% (7-14%) of the coelomic width, respectively. Similar to previous studies in different avian species, the correlation between heart width and thorax width was confirmed. However, the ratio of heart width to thorax width in wild rainbow lorikeets was found to be slightly higher than those published in captive avian species, suggesting that wild birds might have comparably larger hearts than captive birds. The reference intervals established in this study may assist clinicians in identifying changes in the measured organs when enlargement or reduction in size is observed on radiographs of wild rainbow lorikeets.