The tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) is a recent technique that allows the evaluation of the myocardium movement velocity during the cardiac cycle phases, providing important informations of the cardiac function. In veterinary medicine, studies have been realized for the characterization of cardiac contractility dysfunctions and to establish the normality patterns. The present work meant to evaluate the myocardium contractility velocity by the technique of TDI in healthy cats submitted to dissociative anesthesia. For that purpose, there were used nine cats, all adult, healthy and without sexual or breeding distinction. There were measured the values of Ea (early diastolic peak velocity), Aa (late diastolic peak velocity) and Sa (systolic peak velocity) in the lateral and septum wall sides. The mean values observed to septum Ea and septum Sa were of 7.2±2.5cm s-1 and 6.3±1.7cm s-1, respectively. The mean value obtained for lateral Ea was of 12.0±4.1cm s-1, while the mean value of lateral Sa was of 8.3±1.6cm s-1. It was obtained a mean value of 7.0±3.1cm s-1 for the lateral Aa, and 4.7±1.5cm s-1 for septum Aa. The standard of the myocardium contraction velocities mean values in the feline specie is of great importance, and it may help in the early diagnosis of heart contraction alterations. Due to the lack of studies with the TDI technique in cats, the values obtained in our work allow the realization of comparative studies, helping to apply this technique in experimental protocols and to the early diagnosis of cardiomyopathies in the feline specie.
feline; cardiology; diastolic function
