THAI JOURNAL OF VETERINARY MEDICINE, vol.52, no.4, pp.690-696, 2022 (SCI-Expanded)
The purpose of this study was to determine the diagnostic
values of the vertebral heart score (VHS), radiographic left atrial dimension (RLAD), and vertebral left atrial size (VLAS) in the
radiographic evaluation of eccentric cardiac hypertrophy due to volume overload
(VO) in rats. Rats underwent either needle aortocaval shunting
or sham operations. Six weeks later,
VHS, RLAD, and VLAS were measured from radiographs of all
surviving rats (20 control and 54
VO). Measurements were
performed by two observers blinded to the study data.
Heart weight (HW) and HW:body weight (HBW) ratio were determined for all rats
after sacrifice. Correlations between
HBW and VHS, RLAD, and VLAS values were estimated, as well as their sensitivity
and specificity for detecting cardiomegaly and left atrial (LA) enlargement.
Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to estimate the
optimal decision criteria for each radiographic index. A strong positive correlation was observed between these indices and both HW and HBW. The sensitivity and
specificity of these indices for detecting cardiomegaly and LA enlargement when evaluated at the
optimal cut-off values were 100% and 95%, respectively, at 8.7 vertebrae (v) for
RL-VHS, 98.4% and 96.6% at 8.8v for DV-VHS, 97.6% and 90% at 1.6v for RLAD and
92.7% and 89.1% at 2.1v for VLAS. Both intra- and inter-observer measurements revealed good to excellent
agreement for these indices. The study results
indicate that VHS, RLAD, and VLAS are simple, repeatable, and useful
radiographic measurements for predicting cardiomegaly and LA enlargement in
rats with eccentric
cardiac hypertrophy.