Echocardiography of clinically normal Yorkshire Terrier dogs

The aim of this study was to establish the normal echocardiographic parameters in M-mode for Yorkshire Terrier dogs. Thirty clinically normal dogs with mean weight of 2.42+/-0.64kg and ages varying from one to six years old were studied. The left atrial diameter, the aortic diameter, the left ventricular internal dimension at end-diastole and end-systole, end-diastolic and end-systolic interventricular septal thickness, and end-diastolic and end-systolic left ventricular posterior wall thickness had correlation with body weight. The other M-mode variables showed no linear correlations with body weight, sex or age. The echocardiographic values found in this study can be used as reference for this breed.