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Computed tomography of the thorax in rabbits: a prospective study in ten clinically healthy New Zealand White rabbits

BACKGROUND: Literature investigating the normal cross-sectional anatomy of rabbits with computed tomography (CT) is sparse and incomplete. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the normal thoracic structures, in particular the cranial thorax, with CT angiography in 10 clinically health...

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Autores principales: Müllhaupt, Désirée, Wenger, Sandra, Kircher, Patrick, Pfammatter, Nadja, Hatt, Jean-Michel, Ohlerth, Stefanie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2017
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Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5655941/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29065887
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13028-017-0340-x
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author Müllhaupt, Désirée
Wenger, Sandra
Kircher, Patrick
Pfammatter, Nadja
Hatt, Jean-Michel
Ohlerth, Stefanie
author_facet Müllhaupt, Désirée
Wenger, Sandra
Kircher, Patrick
Pfammatter, Nadja
Hatt, Jean-Michel
Ohlerth, Stefanie
author_sort Müllhaupt, Désirée
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Literature investigating the normal cross-sectional anatomy of rabbits with computed tomography (CT) is sparse and incomplete. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the normal thoracic structures, in particular the cranial thorax, with CT angiography in 10 clinically healthy New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits. RESULTS: Absolute and relative measurements of the trachea, heart, thoracic caudal vena cava and aorta, right and left principal bronchi, right and left caudal lobar bronchi and the accompanying branches of the right and left pulmonary artery and vein, right and left lung volume and lung density were taken. The three lobes of the thymus (right ventral, right dorsal and left thoracic lobes) were identified in all rabbits. Both the right dorsal and left thoracic lobes of the thymus extended between the heart and thoracic wall in all individuals with the left lobe reaching more caudally in seven animals. Consequently, the craniocaudal extension of the left lung was smaller than the right lung in these rabbits. Volume of the left lung was significantly smaller than the right (P = 0.005). The cranial mediastinal, right and left tracheobronchial and the aortic thoracic lymph nodes were very small and identified in four, four, seven and ten rabbits, respectively. The heart took up a median of 4.0 intercostal spaces, and in seven rabbits, it was located in the 2nd–5th intercostal space. Median relative cardiac height and width measured 74 and 88%, respectively. The median angle of the trachea to the spine was 5°. Median density between the right and left lung did not significantly differ (− 549 and − 583 Hounsfield units, respectively). In all but one rabbit, atelectasis was present and classified as mild, moderate or severe in six, two and one individuals, respectively. Mild subclinical bronchopneumonia was diagnosed in seven rabbits. CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides species-specific anatomical CT information and reference values for structures in the thorax of the NZW rabbit. Subclinical bronchopneumonia appears to be a common CT finding.
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spelling pubmed-56559412017-10-31 Computed tomography of the thorax in rabbits: a prospective study in ten clinically healthy New Zealand White rabbits Müllhaupt, Désirée Wenger, Sandra Kircher, Patrick Pfammatter, Nadja Hatt, Jean-Michel Ohlerth, Stefanie Acta Vet Scand Research BACKGROUND: Literature investigating the normal cross-sectional anatomy of rabbits with computed tomography (CT) is sparse and incomplete. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the normal thoracic structures, in particular the cranial thorax, with CT angiography in 10 clinically healthy New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits. RESULTS: Absolute and relative measurements of the trachea, heart, thoracic caudal vena cava and aorta, right and left principal bronchi, right and left caudal lobar bronchi and the accompanying branches of the right and left pulmonary artery and vein, right and left lung volume and lung density were taken. The three lobes of the thymus (right ventral, right dorsal and left thoracic lobes) were identified in all rabbits. Both the right dorsal and left thoracic lobes of the thymus extended between the heart and thoracic wall in all individuals with the left lobe reaching more caudally in seven animals. Consequently, the craniocaudal extension of the left lung was smaller than the right lung in these rabbits. Volume of the left lung was significantly smaller than the right (P = 0.005). The cranial mediastinal, right and left tracheobronchial and the aortic thoracic lymph nodes were very small and identified in four, four, seven and ten rabbits, respectively. The heart took up a median of 4.0 intercostal spaces, and in seven rabbits, it was located in the 2nd–5th intercostal space. Median relative cardiac height and width measured 74 and 88%, respectively. The median angle of the trachea to the spine was 5°. Median density between the right and left lung did not significantly differ (− 549 and − 583 Hounsfield units, respectively). In all but one rabbit, atelectasis was present and classified as mild, moderate or severe in six, two and one individuals, respectively. Mild subclinical bronchopneumonia was diagnosed in seven rabbits. CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides species-specific anatomical CT information and reference values for structures in the thorax of the NZW rabbit. Subclinical bronchopneumonia appears to be a common CT finding. BioMed Central 2017-10-24 /pmc/articles/PMC5655941/ /pubmed/29065887 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13028-017-0340-x Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Müllhaupt, Désirée
Wenger, Sandra
Kircher, Patrick
Pfammatter, Nadja
Hatt, Jean-Michel
Ohlerth, Stefanie
Computed tomography of the thorax in rabbits: a prospective study in ten clinically healthy New Zealand White rabbits
title Computed tomography of the thorax in rabbits: a prospective study in ten clinically healthy New Zealand White rabbits
title_full Computed tomography of the thorax in rabbits: a prospective study in ten clinically healthy New Zealand White rabbits
title_fullStr Computed tomography of the thorax in rabbits: a prospective study in ten clinically healthy New Zealand White rabbits
title_full_unstemmed Computed tomography of the thorax in rabbits: a prospective study in ten clinically healthy New Zealand White rabbits
title_short Computed tomography of the thorax in rabbits: a prospective study in ten clinically healthy New Zealand White rabbits
title_sort computed tomography of the thorax in rabbits: a prospective study in ten clinically healthy new zealand white rabbits
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5655941/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29065887
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13028-017-0340-x
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