Ultrasonographic measurement of canine aorta and aortic inlet before and after administration of Propofol

Induction of safe anesthesia is an important task in veterinary medicine. One of the drugs used for anesthesia is Propofol. In this study, five healthy German shepherd dogs were selected and standard echocardiographic procedure from the right parasternal axis view conducted to observe the aorta and aortic inlet in B-mode and M-mode display formats before and after anesthesia with 6 mg/kg of Propofol. In the short axis view, the dorso-ventral and transverse diameter of the aorta in B-mode display and in the long axis view, the systolic and diastolic diameter of the aortic inlet in M-mode display were measured. The average dorso-ventral and transverse diameter of aorta in normal dogs was 22.77±1.49 mm and 20.75± 1.34 mm respectively while in anesthetized dogs these figures were 22.02±0.87 mm and 20.64±1.19 mm respectively which were not significantly different from normal dogs. However, the mean diameter of aorta inlet in M-mode display during systole and diastole was 15.62±0.84 mm and 15.31±0.68 mm respectively in normal dogs and for anesthetized animals these figures were 21.60±1.23 mm during systole and 19.70±0.68 mm during diastole which were significantly different compared with the normal dogs.