Hemodynamic and echocardiographic evaluation of the stumptailed macaque: a potential nonhuman primate model for pulmonary vascular disease.

Stumptailed macaques (Macaca arctoides) were evaluated as to their suitability as an animal model for pulmonary hypertension. Animals used for this study were colony-bred. Necropsy material from 63 animals revealed 32% with severe medial thickening of pulmonary arteries. Twenty-nine stumptailed macaques underwent cardiac catheterization and M-mode echocardiography. Hemodynamic measurement including pulmonary artery pressure response to 12% oxygen exposure identified three groups of animals with elevated, normal, and intermediate pulmonary artery pressures. Stumptailed macaques with elevated pulmonary artery pressure could be distinguished from other animals by echocardiography.