# Shape of the Pulmonary Doppler Sonography Blood Flow Profile of the Congo Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus) and the Influence of Heart Disease

## TL;DR

This study examines how heart disease affects blood flow profiles in Congo grey parrots using sonography, showing that changes in pulmonary artery flow can indicate right heart failure.

## Contribution

The study introduces the use of Doppler sonography to assess right heart function in parrots with heart disease, particularly atherosclerosis.

## Key findings

- Diseased parrots with right heart failure showed shorter acceleration and longer deceleration phases in pulmonary flow profiles.
- Pulmonary Doppler profiles correlated with right ventricle size and pressure conditions in parrots.
- Sonographic parameters of pulmonary flow are comparable to those used in small animal and human medicine for assessing heart function.

## Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases are common in avian patients in captivity, and especially in parrots. In these cases, sonographic examination is an important diagnostic tool for investigating heart failure. In the present study, the shape of the systolic pulsed-wave Doppler blood flow profiles of Congo grey parrots with a presumed heart disease due to atherosclerosis were examined retrospectively and correlated with other sonographic findings associated with left and especially right heart failure. The results of the present study illustrate the influence of heart disease, and particularly right heart failure, on the shape of the pulmonary artery blood flow profile. Thus, our investigations show how helpful the evaluation of the blood flow profile of the pulmonary artery can be in the assessment of heart disease and the prevailing pressure conditions in the heart in bird patients such as the Congo grey parrot.

In avian medicine, sonographic examination is an important diagnostic tool for heart diseases. Little is known about the diagnostic relevance of the Doppler blood flow profiles of parrots. In the present study, sonographic examinations of Congo grey parrots with atherosclerosis were evaluated retrospectively to gain more knowledge about their pulmonary and aortic systolic blood flow. The shapes of their Doppler sonographic blood flow profiles were quantified by the determination of the acceleration and deceleration phases. The investigations showed the differences between the aortic flow profile, with fast rising velocities, and the pulmonary flow profile, which has a round shape, in grey parrots. Diseased parrots with ultrasonographic signs of a right heart failure, such as an enlarged right ventricle and/or insufficiencies of the right atrioventricular and/or pulmonary valve, showed a significantly shorter acceleration and longer deceleration phase than parrots without heart failure or with sonographic signs of left heart failure only. The correlation of the shape of the pulmonary Doppler blood flow profile with the diameter of the left atrium, the systolic and diastolic diameter of the right ventricle, the fractional shortening of the left and right ventricle, and the mean aortic and pulmonary blood flow illustrates the importance of these sonographic parameters in the investigation of the function of the right ventricle in heart disease. Our examination showed that the shape of the pulmonary Doppler blood flow profile of Congo grey parrots provides important information about the pressure load on the right ventricle in heart diseases, which is comparable to that in small animal and human medicine.