Quantitative assessment of regional right ventricular myocardial velocities in awake dogs by Doppler tissue imaging: repeatability, reproducibility, effect of body weight and breed, and comparison with left ventricular myocardial velocities

Right ventricular myocardial (RVM) motion is poorly documented. The objective of this study was to determine the variability of RVM velocities by tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) in healthy dogs (study 1), to analyze RVM motion in a large healthy canine population (study 2), and to compare the results with those obtained for the left ventricular free wall. Six healthy Beagle Dogs were monitored in study 1, and 64 healthy dogs of 14 different breeds were monitored in study 2. Velocities were recorded in 2 segments (basal and apical) of the right and left myocardial walls. In study 1, 36 TDI examinations were performed for 4 days, whereas a single TDI examination was performed on each dog in study 2. All velocity profiles included 1 positive systolic wave and 2 negative diastolic waves. The lowest intraday and interday coefficient of variation values of the right TDI variables were observed at the base (3.5-16.1%). The variability of the right apical velocities was much higher, with most coefficient of variation values > 15%. RVM velocities were higher in the basal than in the apical segments (P < .001) and were higher than the left velocities of the corresponding segment (P < .01). Body weight and breed had an effect on only a few right and left TDI variables. TDI provides a repeatable and reproducible method for evaluating basal RV function in the dog. These data also demonstrate the heterogeneity of the myocardial velocities between the left and the right ventricles and between the base and the apex.     

Quantification, repeatability, and reproducibility of feline radial and longitudinal left ventricular velocities by tissue Doppler imaging

OBJECTIVE: To measure the radial and longitudinal velocities of several myocardial segments of the left ventricular wall by use of tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) in healthy cats and determine the repeatability and reproducibility of the technique. ANIMALS: 6 healthy cats. PROCEDURE: 72 TDI examinations were performed on 4 days by the same trained observer. Radial parameters included left endocardial and epicardial myocardial velocities. Longitudinal parameters included left basal, middle, and apical myocardial velocities. RESULTS: All velocity profiles had 1 positive systolic wave (S) and 2 negative diastolic waves (E and A). Myocardial velocities were higher in the endocardial than epicardial segments during the entire cardiac cycle (systolic wave S, 4.4 +/- 0.82 and 1.9 +/- 0.55; diastolic wave E, 9.7 +/- 1.70 and 2.2 +/- 0.74; and diastolic wave A, 5.1 +/- 1.56 and 1.4 +/- 0.76, respectively). Velocities were also higher in the basal than in the apical segments (systolic wave S, 4.7 +/- 0.76 and 0.2 +/- 0.11; diastolic wave E, 9.7 +/- 1.36 and 0.5 +/- 0.17; and diastolic wave A, 3.7 +/- 1.51 and 0.2 +/- 0.13, respectively). The lowest within-day and between-day coefficients of variation were observed in endocardial segments (8.2% and 6.5% for systolic wave S and diastolic wave E, respectively) and in the basal segment in protodiastole (5.5%). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Repeatability and reproducibility of TDI were adequate for measurement of longitudinal and radial left ventricular motion in healthy awake cats. Validation of TDI is a prerequisite before this new technique can be recommended for clinical use.     

Cell models of prion infection

Due to recent renewal of interest and concerns in prion diseases, a number of cell systems permissive to prion multiplication have been generated in the last years. These include established cell lines, neuronal stem cells and primary neuronal cultures. While most of these models are permissive to experimental, mouse-adapted strains of prions, the propagation of natural field isolates from sheep scrapie and chronic wasting disease has been recently achieved. These models have improved our knowledge on the molecular and cellular events controlling the conversion of the PrP(C) protein into abnormal isoforms and on the cell-to-cell spreading of prions. Infected cultured cells will also facilitate investigations on the molecular basis of strain identity and on the mechanisms that lead to neurodegeneration. The ongoing development of new cell models with improved characteristics will certainly be useful for a number of unanswered critical issues in the prion field.     

High-throughput phenotyping of lateral expansion and regrowth of spaced <Emphasis Type="Italic">Lolium perenne</Emphasis> plants using on-field image analysis

Background

Genetic studies and breeding of agricultural crops frequently involve phenotypic characterization of large collections of genotypes grown in field conditions. These evaluations are typically based on visual observations and manual (destructive) measurements. Robust image capture and analysis procedures that allow phenotyping large collections of genotypes in time series during developmental phases represent a clear advantage as they allow non-destructive monitoring of plant growth and performance. A L. perenne germplasm panel including wild accessions, breeding material and commercial varieties has been used to develop a low-cost, high-throughput phenotyping tool for determining plant growth based on images of individual plants during two consecutive growing seasons. Further we have determined the correlation between image analysis-based estimates of the plant’s base area and the capacity to regrow after cutting, with manual counts of tiller number and measurements of leaf growth 2 weeks after cutting, respectively. When working with field-grown plants, image acquisition and image segmentation are particularly challenging as outdoor light conditions vary throughout the day and the season, and variable soil colours hamper the delineation of the object of interest in the image. Therefore we have used several segmentation methods including colour-, texture- and edge-based approaches, and factors derived after a fast Fourier transformation. The performance of the procedure developed has been analysed in terms of effectiveness across different environmental conditions and time points in the season.

Results

The procedure developed was able to analyse correctly 77.2 % of the 24,048 top view images processed. High correlations were found between plant’s base area (image analysis-based) and tiller number (manual measurement) and between regrowth after cutting (image analysis-based) and leaf growth 2 weeks after cutting (manual measurement), with r values up to 0.792 and 0.824, respectively. Nevertheless, these relations depend on the origin of the plant material (forage breeding lines, current forage varieties, current turf varieties, and wild accessions) and the period in the season.

Conclusions

The image-derived parameters presented here deliver reliable, objective data, complementary to the breeders’ scores, and are useful for genetic studies. Furthermore, large variation was shown among genotypes for the parameters investigated.

     

Commercial rhizobial inoculants significantly enhance growth and nitrogen fixation of a promiscuous soybean variety in Kenyan soils

Low effectiveness of native strains remains a limitation to soybean productivity in sub-Saharan Africa; while in other countries commercial inoculants are produced that provide effective strains that stimulate N fixation and growth. An experiment was set up to evaluate the response of a dual purpose promiscuous soybean variety (TGx1740-2F) and a non-promiscuous variety (Nyala) to commercial rhizobium inoculants in soils from central and coastal Kenya. Highest nodulation was observed in some of the treatments with commercial inoculants applied with nodule weights of 4.5 and 1.0 g plant⁻¹ for TGx1740-2F and Nyala, respectively. Average biomass yields of TGx1740-2F (16 g plant⁻¹) were twice as large as of Nyala (7.5 g plant⁻¹) at the podding stage. Nitrogen fixation was higher in TGx1740-2F than in Nyala, and positively affected by a number of commercial inoculants with more than 50% N derived from the atmosphere. Nodule occupancy was 100% on both soybean varieties, indicating that the commercial strains were extremely infective in both of the tested soils. These results showed that commercial strains can be used to inoculate promiscuous soybean and enhance N fixation and yield.