Vertebral Heart Size of healthy calves in thoracic radiography

The aims of this study were to obtain vertebral heart size (VHS) in healthy, native and mixed breed (Holstein) calves. The study was conducted on 34 clinically native (16) and mixed breed (18) healthy calves. Left to right (LR) and right to left (RL) lateral radiographs were made in lateral recumbency. In LL and RL radiographs, lengths of 4th thoracic vertebra (T) to T6, 4th sternebra (S) to S6 were measured in centimeter. Long and short axis of the heart and sum of them, were also measured. Measurements were recorded in centimeters and number of thoracic vertebral length spanned by each dimension, measured caudally from T4. Means ± SD and correlation coefficients between the measurements were calculated with standard statistical software (SPSS). There were significant correlations between long and short cardiac axes and sum of them versus T4 to T6 and their correlations were more than sternebrae 4-6 length in LL and RL radiograph. There were no significant differences in cardiac dimension, in vertebrae and centimeters between LL and RL radiographs, based on student's t test (P>0.05). In native and mixed breed calves, means ± SD VHS were 9.0 ± 0.3 and 9.4 ± 0.4 vertebrae, respectively. Means ± SD VHS of native and mixed breed calves was 9.2±0.4 and 9.3±0.4 in LL and Rl radiographs, respectively. Our results showed that VHS of calves were smaller than dog and larger than cat.