CEUS ultrasonography in the assessment of pregnant ewes

Abstract

Goals are: 1) perform CEUS assessment of the uterus of pregnant ewes determining new ways for the assessment of it; 2) determine qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the blood perfusion in the placenta and assess its correlation with the development and maintenance of gestation; 3) assess patterns of vascular perfusion in the placenta in ewes with gestational abnormalities, if they occur. There will be used adult Santa Inês sheep weighting 40 - 60Kg. Uterus and placentomes will be assessed. Evaluations will be performed once a month with the Acuson S2000/Siemens equipment with multifrequency transducer (3,5 to 4,5MHz). Gestation assessment and follow up as well as fetus viability will be performed with B Mode ultrasonography. After CEUS, Doppler sonography will be done to assess possible changes that may occur after the use of microbubbles. Siblings will be clinically evaluated for six months to assess possible damage caused by CEUS. Characteristics of tissue filling with microbubbles and wash-in and wash-out times, as well as the peak of contrast will be assessed using proper software and Sonovue contrast. Statistical tests will be performed to compare and correlate data with particularities of the project with significance of 5% (p<0,05). (AU)