Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How sedation affects portal vein blood flow speed in hospitalized dogs
By Jamont, Wiktoria et al.·Published in Veterinary radiology & ultrasound : the official journal of the American College of Veterinary Radiology and the International Veterinary Radiology Association·2026·Department of Diagnostic Imaging·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Effect of a Standardized Sedation Protocol on Portal Vein Velocity Measurements in Hospitalized Dogs Using Triplex-Doppler Ultrasonography.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 15 dogs undergoing abdominal ultrasound for unrelated issues were sedated with a combination of medetomidine and butorphanol. After sedation, the dogs showed a significant drop in portal vein velocity (PVV), which is an important measure of liver blood flow. Before sedation, only 20% of the dogs had a PVV below the normal threshold, but after sedation, that number jumped to 60%. This means that sedation can affect test results, potentially making it look like some dogs have liver problems when they don’t. It's important for veterinarians to consider this when interpreting results from sedated dogs.
People also search for: dog sedation effects · portal vein velocity in dogs · liver function tests in sedated dogs
Abstract
Portal vein velocity (PVV) is a useful indirect indicator of portal pressure. Reference values for PVV have been previously established in healthy, non-sedated dogs with reported ranges of 14.7 ± 2.5 and 18.1 ± 7.6 cm/s. PVV may be influenced by physiological and pathological factors; for example, a correlation between body weight and PVV has been documented; however, the effect of other factors is unknown. The primary aims of this prospective comparative study were to investigate the effect of standardized intravenous sedation protocol of medetomidine (2-3 µg/kg) and butorphanol (0.3 mg/kg) on PVV and to determine whether post-sedation PVV results would fall below the portal hypertension threshold of 10 cm/s. Six triplex-Doppler PVV measurements were obtained pre- and post-sedation on 15 client-owned dogs undergoing abdominal ultrasonography for conditions unrelated to primary liver disease. The mean PVV pre-sedation was 14.9 ± 3.98 cm/s and 3-min post-sedation was 10.4 ± 3.73 cm/s, representing a statistically significant reduction in PVV (p < 0.001). The mean PVV was below 10 cm/s in 3/15 (20%) dogs pre-sedation and below 10 cm/s in 9/15 (60%) dogs post-sedation. There was no effect of age, sex, or weight on PVV before and/or after sedation. Sedation with medetomidine and butorphanol caused a significant reduction in PVV at 3-min post-administration. This finding should be considered when evaluating hepatic and portal hemodynamics in dogs, as 60% (9/15) of the sedated cases with presumed normal hepatic function exhibited post-sedation PVV at levels seen with portal hypertension.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42007642/