Usefulness of focused cardiac ultrasonography for predicting fluid responsiveness in conscious, spontaneously breathing dogs.

Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic usefulness of focused cardiac ultrasonography and selected echocardiographic variables for predicting fluid responsiveness in conscious, spontaneously breathing dogs with various clinical conditions.

Animals: 26 dogs (15 males and 11 females) with a median age of 84 months (range, 12 to 360 months) and median body weight of 8 kg (range, 2 to 35 kg) referred for various clinical conditions.

Procedures: Left ventricular end-diastolic internal diameter normalized to body weight (LVIDDn), left ventricular volume score (LVVS), left ventricular end-diastolic volume index (EDVI), aortic velocity time integral (VTI), and aortic peak flow velocity (Vmax) were echocardiographically measured before and after IV administration of a bolus of lactated Ringer solution (4 mL/kg) over a 1-minute period. Dogs were classified on the basis of the observed change in aortic stroke volume following fluid administration as responders (≥ 15%) or nonresponders (< 15%) to fluid administration. Receiver operating characteristic curves were generated for the ability of LVVS, LVIDDn, EDVI, VTI, and Vmax to predict responder status.

Results: 13 dogs were classified as responders and 13 as nonresponders. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (95% confidence intervals) for predicting fluid responsiveness were as follows: VTI, 0.91 (0.74 to 0.99); LVIDDn, 0.85 (0.66 to 0.96); EDVI, 0.85 (0.65 to 0.96); LVVS, 0.85 (0.65 to 0.96); and Vmax, 0.75 (0.54 to 0.90).

Conclusions And Clinical Relevance: The evaluated echocardiographic variables were useful for noninvasive prediction of fluid responsiveness in conscious dogs and could be valuable for informing clinical decisions regarding fluid therapy.