Cardiovascular assessment in Female Spotted Paca (Cuniculus paca)

Abstract

Aiming to provide cardiovascular morphophysiology information on the Cuniculus paca, an important neotropical rodent, eight healthy adult females of this species were evaluated three times by echocardiography under general anesthesia with isoflurane every 15 days. The exams were performed by a single experienced evaluator with the animals positioned in right and left decubitus. Posteriorly, two expert evaluators measured the cardiac chambers, walls and flow patterns, by B-mode, M-mode, and Doppler ultrasonography. The resulting values were compared among evaluators and periods by the Bland-Altman agreement test and several descriptive statistics were presented for each parameter. Echocardiographic images were obtained between the second and fifth left and right intercostal spaces, enabling the measurement of heart chambers and walls, mitral, tricuspid, aortic and pulmonary valves blood flows, and the ejection and shortening fractions calculation. None of the studied variables showed inter-observers or inter-periods variations. This study provided some normal echocardiographic variables, applicable to epidemiological, pathophysiological or case studies in the Cuniculus paca and phylogenetically close species.