The greatest wish of a racehorse breeder is to consistently produce healthy and strong foals. However, during the production process, embryo death and miscarriage in horses often occur after confirmation of conception, and more than 10% of pregnant horses do not result in live birth even if they become pregnant. The use of horse ultrasound machines to diagnose reproductive related causes such as infertility, stillbirth, and miscarriage in horses, and for early prevention and treatment, is extremely important for the breeding of horses.

What is a veterinary ultrasound machine in the field of horse breeding?

Ultrasound diagnostic equipment is expensive, but it has been proven to be very effective in diagnosing early pregnancy, especially in diagnosing twins, and has been widely used. At the racecourse, veterinarians insert the probe of ultrasound diagnostic equipment through the anus to observe the condition of the reproductive organs and fetus. During the breeding season, it is frequently used almost every day. It can be said without exaggeration that the development of daily horse production medicine would not have been possible without ultrasound examination.

Ultrasound images of horses after 13 days of mating

Ultrasound images of horse breeding for 13 days 3

What is a color Doppler ultrasound machine for horses? Differences from traditional veterinary ultrasound examination

High definition Doppler ultrasound pregnancy tester for horses

The use of color Doppler ultrasound system for examination is widely used, which can display blood flow in the ovaries, uterus, fetus, and surrounding areas in color. By using this device, one can understand the functional diagnosis and hemodynamics of organs, and see clearer images than when using traditional ultrasound.

In the field of horse production, in addition to existing diagnostic methods, it is also necessary to establish more objective imaging diagnostic techniques, such as early diagnosis of embryo death. In order to clarify some of these issues, the search for changes in blood flow in the reproductive organs is considered a means of predicting and diagnosing diseases and investigating their causes.

For many years, we have been using color Doppler ultrasound to examine the blood flow in the ovaries, uterus, fetus, and reproductive organs of normal mares.

When the rectal examination probe connected to the color Doppler ultrasound system is applied to the uterus and ovaries, in addition to the traditional black and white images, areas with blood flow can also be seen in the red and blue images. Due to the ability to display both black and white images and color images simultaneously, it is possible to identify blood flow areas while checking the shape on a traditional black and white screen. The following are typical diagnostic techniques using color Doppler diagnostic equipment elucidated through past research results and overseas research reports.

Color Doppler ultrasound can clearly distinguish tissues and organs with abundant capillaries, such as the corpus luteum, which is easily mistaken for ovarian parenchyma on black and white images*** A recent study found a difference in the blood flow area around ovulatory and blocked follicles, and reported that it can be used to predict ovulation (ultrasound imaging and animal reproduction: color Doppler ultrasound). On the other hand, when observing the fetus, simply placing the cursor on the drawn blood vessels will automatically measure values such as heart rate and blood flow velocity. Therefore, it is possible to measure the heart rate of fetuses with a body size of less than 1 centimeter and visualize the heart rate of fetuses as young as 24 days old. In addition, the heart rate calculation of 35 day old fetuses is stable, with an average heart rate of 165 beats per minute, which is more than four times the heart rate of adult horses. These new technologies are expected to become a simple diagnostic method for early embryo death.

Color Doppler veterinary ultrasound machine

The gestation period of horses is up to 11 months, and the fetus is believed to require a large amount of nutrition and oxygen during the growth process. However, it is still unclear how the arterial blood flow supplying the pregnant uterus changes. The unique feature of horses is that they can become pregnant only 10 days after giving birth, but little is known about the blood flow in the uterus during postpartum estrus. In Germany and the United States, color Doppler ultrasound equipment has been used to measure blood flow indicators in the uterine and ovarian blood vessels of horses, and based on this, new methods for pregnancy diagnosis and ovulation prediction have been developed. In Japan, in order to achieve more efficient horse production medicine, we believe that the application of color Doppler ultrasound diagnostic equipment is indispensable. We conducted surveys and measurements of uterine artery blood flow index using color Doppler ultrasound diagnostic equipment.

Usually, the reproductive organs on the ventral side of the rectum are examined, but in blood flow examination, a probe is used to visualize the uterine artery on the dorsal side of the rectum, and then the average blood flow measurement speed and other measurement items are compared throughout the entire pregnancy stage. As a result, we found that these factors fluctuate greatly with the progression of pregnancy and childbirth, and blood demand undergoes significant changes during pregnancy and childbirth. The results showed that the average blood flow velocity increased with the progression of pregnancy, and the blood flow velocity in the uterine artery before delivery was faster than that in the aorta pumped out from the heart.

Future utilization methods and potential applications of color Doppler veterinary ultrasound diagnosis

Color Doppler ultrasound is considered to have a wide range of applications, but it is expected to be used for prevention and diagnosis.

(1) Diagnose whether the uterine function during pregnancy is normal based on blood flow indicators.

(2) Fetal heart rate measurement and 3D stereoscopic image diagnosis, combined with color Doppler ultrasound, provide a comprehensive health examination of the fetus.

(3) Checking the uterine artery before delivery to determine the risk of uterine artery rupture is common in mares.

(4) Diagnose postpartum uterine function recovery based on blood flow levels.

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