Abstract
In the chest X-ray examination of ferrets, the long axis of the heart in the right lateral view (RL) (RL-LA, cm), RL-short axis (RL-SA, cm), RL-6th thoracic vertebra (6th DV, cm), and RL-vertebral heart size (VHS, n), LA in the ventrodorsal view (VD) (VD-LA, cm), VD-SA (cm), VD-VHS (n), VD-left 8th costal length (VD-LEC, cm), and VD-thoracic cavity width centering on the 8th thoracic vertebra (VD-8th TV, cm) were measured in 19 normal ferrets and 16 ferrets clinically diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy. The mean RL-LA was 3.05±0.32 in the normal group, and 3.49±0.46 in the dilated cardiomyopathy group, the mean RL-SA was 2.18±0.23 and 2.54±0.27, respectively, the mean RL-VHS was 5.16±0.42 and 5.94±0.55, the mean VD-LA was 3.60±0.33 and 4.09±0.49, VD-SA was 2.45±0.27 and 2.94±0.37, and the mean VD-VHS was 6.06±0.43 and 6.91±0.67, respectively. All 6 items were greater in the dilated cardiomyopathy group than in the normal group, suggesting that the heart diameter was dilated in the former compared to the latter.
