Advanced techniques in echocardiography in small animals.

Transthoracic echocardiography has become a major imaging tool for the diagnosis and management of canine and feline cardiovascular diseases. During the last decade, more recent advances in ultrasound technology with the introduction of newer imaging modalities, such as tissue Doppler imaging, strain and strain rate imaging, and 2-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography, have provided new parameters to assess myocardial performance, including regional myocardial velocities and deformation, ventricular twist, and mechanical synchrony. An outline of these 4 recent ultrasound techniques, their impact on the understanding of right and left ventricular function in small animals, and their application in research and clinical settings are given in this article.