One of my fellow graduates of the U of Illinois EVP program sent this e mail:

All,

Hope you had a wonderful holiday!  

One of my fellow graduates of the U of Illinois EVP program sent this e mail:

All,

Hope you had a wonderful holiday!  

Just wanted to quick poll some of you about your experiences ultrasounding patients with tissue icterus.  I did an emergency ultrasound on an intact female labrador with hepatic failure (can’t get an ALT value even with dilution) and obvious tissue icterus. She hasn’t been vaccinated for lepto in years, but also started carprofen about 1 month ago and has been anorexic and doing poorly/inappetant since then.  The images for my abdominal ultrasound were terrible because all of her subcutaneous fat was intensely hyperechoic.  

 Do you find that your image quality is poor in icteric patients?   I haven’t noticed this with smaller dogs or cats, so I’m wondering if the bilirubin creates enough of a structural change that ultrasound has a difficult time transmitting through a certain thickness of icteric tissues.

I’m trying to find out if there’s anything in the journals or on VIN, but wanted to hear your input too!

Doe’s anyone on Sonopath have anything to offer here? 

Let me know and I will forward it to my group.

Thanks