Diagnostic ultrasound examination was performed on 53 mature, tranquillized, Atlantic salmon. Wild fish and farmed fish were equally represented. The purpose was to find a rapid method of examination that could be used to identify and separate fish with cardiomyopathy syndrome while fish are tranquillized for other procedures. Three methods of examination were studied. The non‐elastic pericardium and absence of lungs results in cardiac function which is clearly different from that in mammals. M‐mode echocardiography was complex, technical and time consuming and calculated fractional shortening was not reliable. Subjective evaluation of the heart and liver was valuable and easy to perform. Measurement of the transverse dimension of the atrium and ventricle on a ventro‐dorsal axis through the cranial limit of the A‐V valve gave acceptable objective data for comparison of the ventricular and atrial size. Diagnostic ultrasound is both practical and valuable for the clinical study of disease
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