Veterinary session

The systemic arterial blood pressure is generated by the contraction of the left ventricle and the systolic arterial pressure is equal with the pressure in the left ventricle during systole. If mitral regurgitation presents the left ventricular pressure can be calculated from the velocity of the regurgitant jet with the Bernoulli equation. The aim of our study was to compare the systolic blood pressure calculated from the mitral regurgitation in dogs with mitral insufficiency with the blood pressure measured indirectly on their tail.

During our study we performed simultaneous Doppler-echocardiography and indirect blood pressure measurement (HDO-Oscillometry) on the tail in twelve client owned dogs that suffered from degenerative mitral valve disease. All dogs belonged to the small breed group, their mean body weight was 8,9±2 kg, their mean age was 11±3 years, four of them were females, eight were males.

The arterial blood pressure measured by HDO method on the tail was on average 10,6 mmHg higher than the pressure estimated by Doppler-echocardiography from the mitral regurgitation. However, the dispersion of the results was high between the two methods and the calculated values deviated in both directions. Based on our study we can conclude that the measured indirect blood pressure and the blood pressure value calculated from the velocity of the mitral regurgitation are different and the two methods cannot be used interchangeably. It is not possible to reliably conclude to the systemic arterial blood pressure from the Doppler –echocardiographic examination in dogs.