Echocardiographic assessment of healthy dogs sedated with midazolam/butorphanol or midazolam/morphine

Abstract

Due to their anxiolytic effects and cardiovascular safety, the combination of midazolam and morphine or butorphanol are often used for sedation of non-collaborative animals to the various diagnostic procedures. However, there is no information in the veterinary literature regarding the influence of these protocols on the echocardiographic examination of dogs. Therefore, the present study aims to evaluate the effects of these associations under the echocardiographic variables of left ventricular systolic and diastolic function. 24 healthy dogs will be allocated to two groups of 12 animals, which will be sedated with the combination of midazolam / butorphanol (GBUT) or midazolam / morphine (GMOR). All subjects will undergo conventional transthoracic echocardiography, which will include B-mode, M-mode, color flow, spectral Doppler and tissue Doppler evaluations. Evaluations will occur before (MB) and 20 minutes after sedation (MS). Data will be analyzed for distribution by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and comparisons between groups and moments will be performed by means of analysis of variance or Kruskal-Wallis test, followed by Tukey test or Dunn test, under 5% significance. The project was designed to run within 12 months and the results will be disseminated through publication in periodicals and presentation at scientific events.