Ultrasonographic assessment of normal jugular veins in Standardbred horses

Abstract

Abstract Background Ultrasonography (US) is the recommended imaging technique to evaluate jugular veins. This prospective randomized clinical study was designed to collect a series of B-mode US measurements of manually distended jugular veins in healthy Italian Standardbreds and to find possible correlations between ultrasound measurements and animal morphometric characteristics. Forty-two horses, eight males and 34 females (range 3–22 years; bodyweight 494.4 ± 41.7 kg), were included in the study. The diameters and wall thicknesses of both jugular veins were measured at three different sites of the neck. The differences in ultrasound measurements based on scans, age, gender, side, and site of the neck were evaluated by ANOVA or by the Kruskal-Wallis test. The effects of the morphometric measures on each ultrasound parameter were evaluated by MANOVA (P 14), differences were found for the lateromedial diameter in the transverse scan and the SWT on the longitudinal scan. The main limitation of this study was that only one operator performed the measurements. Conclusion The US measurements of the jugular veins and their relationship with morphometric measures reported in this manuscript might be considered as guidelines both for early diagnosis and monitoring jugular vein abnormalities in healthy Italian Standardbred horses.

Keywords

• Equine
• Italian Standardbred
• Jugular veins
• Phlebitis
• Ultrasonography
• Venous wall thickness