ABSTRACT:
Herein it was describe sonographic morphology and sintopy of the bowels of the coelomic cavity in the red-footed tortoise. Coelomic cavity of 19 males and 19 females were scanned through cervical and prefemoral access with a multifrequency sector transducer. Morphology, syntopy and echogenicity of the heart, thyroid, liver, gallbladder, reproductive organs, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, urinary bladder and kidneys were evaluated. The heart showed two atria and one ventricle with a thick, trabecular wall. The thyroid was oval and hyperecoic, visualized in the cardiac portion of the ultrasound. The liver, gallbladder and digestive system were similar to those seen in mammals and turtles. However, the tortoise liver was relatively more hyperechoic than mammals. The kidneys appeared as triangular structures, which were hypoechoic, homogeneous and vascularized; the bladder was observed mostly as being elongated with anechoic content, and its wall appeared as a thin hyperechoic line when free fluid was present. The testes were observed to be elongated, homogeneous and more hyperechoic than kidneys. The ovarian follicles were seen as hyperechoic, echogenic balls of variable size and quantity, the oviduct as a sigmoid tubular structure and the eggs as thin hyperechoic lines with posterior acoustic shadowing. In some animals, there were variable amounts of fluid around the heart and in the coelomic cavity.
Key words:
chelonians; ultrasound; tortoise; Testudines; Chelonoidis carbonaria
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