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Blackwell Publishing released the Atlas of Small Animal Ultrasonography by Dominique Pennick and Marc-Andre d’Anjou in February 2008. Contributors worldwide have added their expertise to this unique book. The atlas is designed to aid the veterinarian and student with performing complete ultrasound examinations of small animals and a reference for those more advanced ultrasonographic skills by providing excellent quality images of both normal and abnormal small animal anatomic features.
The atlas is structured around a systems based examination of body systems, each with a dedicated chapter describing patient preparation and scanning technique, normal sonographic anatomy of the small animal, sonographic findings of systems disorders and disease processes, concluding with extensive reference lists for additional information and resources. There are 16 chapters including the nervous system, thorax, heart, gastrointestinal tract, reproductive tracts, and the musculosketetal system. Each chapter follows an identical format allowing the reader to locate information and appropriate images quickly. In addition, the index is very specific which allows for rapid navigation throughout the atlas.
In small animal practice, the practitioner frequently encounters patients with cardiovascular disorders that could be better defined using echocardiology, potentially leading to better treatment. Asculting a heart murmur and standard radiology cannot always localize the disorder or disease at hand. Echocardiology is often the next step in the diagnostic workup of the patient, however, image interpretation can be difficult if the ultrasonographer has limited experience with the echocardiogram. Chapter Five: “Heart” is an excellent example of the thorough echocardiographic workup of the patient. Instrumentation and patient preparation are discussed as well as the limited window of availability to image the heart through the intercostal spaces. Transducer size and orientation are extremely important in order to capture accurate representation of the patient’s heart. Excellent drawings of the patient, orientation of transducer, schematic of anatomy to be visualized, and echocardiographic images of actual cardiac anatomy highlight the chapter. Congenital and acquired heart diseases are discussed independently using high quality, well-labeled images. M-mode and Doppler echocardiography are explained with appropriate images and an extensive appendix of canine breed specific M-mode reference values, Doppler inflow and outflow values, and systolic time interval reference values.