Ultrasonographic measurement of adrenal gland-to-aorta ratio as a method of estimating adrenal size in dogs

What is it about?

Adrenal size has been used as the principal criterion for differentiating a normal gland from adrenal hyperplasia. There is no information relating the adrenal size to some indicator of the body size, such as the aortic diameter, using ultrasound. The objectives of this study were to establish an ultrasonographic measurement of adrenal gland-to-aorta (adrenal/Ao) ratio to estimate the adrenal size andto assess the effects of bodyweight, age and gender on the adrenal/Ao ratio in non-adrenal gland disease dogs. 
Gender and age did not influence on the adrenal/Ao ratio. Body weight has influence on adrenal/Ao ratio being the highest value for small size and the lowest value for large size. 
Our results indicate that only body weight influences on the ultrasound measurement of the adrenal/Ao ratio in non-adrenal gland disease dogs. Further studies are needed to assess the usefulness of this ratio in dogs with hyperadrenocorticism.

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