Cardiac Performance Using Echocardiography and Its Correlation to Body Weight of Healthy Police Horses

Abstract

Police forces in Indonesia train and use Warmblood horses to conduct official police tasks. Optimal cardiovascular health and body weight of these horses are vital to ensure their performance is not compromised during duties. This research aims to determine the cardiac performance parameters of heart rate (HR), cardiac output (CO), stroke volume (SV), fractional shortening (FS), and ejection fraction (EF) using echocardiography and its correlation to the body weight of police horses. Ten healthy adult police horses from Direktorat Polisi Satwa, Depok were subjected to B-mode and M-mode echocardiography for a comprehensive assessment of cardiac performance parameters while body weight was determined using an equine scale. Regression analysis was employed to analyse the correlation between body weight and cardiac performance parameters. The results of cardiac performance parameters were within the normal reference range, indicating good cardiac performance and no abnormalities in cardiac function. A weak negative correlation between HR and CO, weak positive correlation between SV, and a significantly negative correlation between FS and EF to body weight of the police horses were determined respectively. The study provides insight into using echocardiography to evaluate cardiac performance parameters and how these parameters correlate to the body weight of police horses.