Applications of ultrasound to veterinary diagnostics in a veterinary teaching hospital

Animal patients at Colorado State University's Veterinary Teaching Hospital as well as beagles at the Collaborative Radiological Health Laboratory (CRHL) have been routinely evaluated using a variety of ultrasonic procedures that are commonplace in human medicine. The results from these clinical investigations have provided diagnostic information which in many cases has not been available using other clinical testing methods. Dogs, cats, horses, and cattle have been the primary animals evaluated, but more exotic subjects such as rabbits, ferrets, goats, and armadillos have also been examined. Standard M mode echocardiographic and classic contact scanning have been used to evaluate the heart and abdominal-pelvic areas respectively. Recently, real time scanning has been added to our capabilities for evaluating animal subjects. These clinical studies, while obviously adding to veterinary diagnostics have also become an exciting new area in the veterinary teaching program. Ultrasound has shown potential in a variety of studies employing animal models, i.e., aging effects on the heart in beagles and anthracycline-induced myocardial dysfunction in rabbits.