Practical radiography in small animal practice III: cases with a heart murmur

摘要

It is well known that echocardiography is a highly dynamic technique that obtains real time images of the contracting heart. In addition, it allows the assessment of the heart's internal architecture and the blood flow from and to the major vessels. It is now a fundamental tool in the diagnostic work up of patients suffering from cardiac pathology. However, there is the trend to forget that thoracic radiography is the perfect complementary tool to echocardiography. Good thoracic radiographs will determine whether cardiogenic pulmonary oedema is present and will rule out the presence of non-cardiac lesions that could cause the clinical signs.