Ultrasound-based aortic elasticity predicts systemic hypertension in dogs with mitral valve disease: A randomized clinical trial.

This study aimed to evaluate whether abdominal aortic elasticity (AAE), a noninvasive ultrasonographic measurement, could assist in the clinical staging and blood pressure (BP) monitoring of dogs with myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD). A second aim was to determine an AAE cut-off predictive of systemic hypertension. Thirty-seven client-owned dogs (6.8 ± 3.9 kg; 10.7 ± 4.4 years) were enrolled in a prospective, randomized, blinded study and stratified into three groups based on the 2019 ACVIM consensus: healthy controls (G1, n= 8), asymptomatic MMVD stage B2 dogs (G2, n= 19), and symptomatic MMVD stage C dogs (G3, n= 10). Abdominal ultrasonography was used to calculate AAE, while systolic arterial pressure was measured using a validated oscillometric device. Comparative analysis of AAE values among groups revealed a progressive decline associated with disease severity, with mean AAE of 11.4 ± 5.3% in healthy controls, 8.4 ± 3.8% in stage B2 dogs, and 5.9 ± 3.1% in stage C dogs. The reduction in AAE was statistically significant between stage C and control groups (P < 0.05). A strong inverse correlation was observed between AAE and systolic pressure (r = -0.7352; p < 0.001), suggesting that reduced aortic compliance may reflect increased vascular resistance in the context of cardiac remodeling and hypertension. An AAE value ≤6.1% predicted systemic hypertension with 80.0% sensitivity and 75.6% specificity. These findings indicate AAE is inversely correlated with systolic BP and may support hypertension screening in dogs with MMVD. Further studies are needed to confirm its diagnostic performance.