Hands-on training improved LA:Ao image acquisition in students: full analysis
A new study in the Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care adds evidence to a question many veterinary educators are actively working through: what’s the most efficient way to teach focused cardiac ultrasound skills that are clinically useful in general practice and emergency settings? In Assessing the Effect of Different Teaching Methods on Left Atrial-to-Aortic Ratio Image Acquisition and Image Interpretation, Kathrin Siedenburg and colleagues compared video-only teaching with two more interactive approaches and found a split result: hands-on training improved image acquisition, while video training alone was adequate for image interpretation. The article appeared in the journal’s recent publications list on April 15, 2026. (vetlit.org)
That distinction matters because LA:Ao is not an abstract academic measurement. In dogs, it’s one of the most familiar echocardiographic markers for left atrial enlargement and plays a role in assessing cardiac disease severity, particularly myxomatous mitral valve disease. Published veterinary literature has emphasized that LA:Ao is body weight-independent and commonly used in practice, although it is not the only way to assess atrial size and can disagree with volume-based methods in some patients. (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
The broader backdrop is a steady push to make focused cardiac ultrasound more usable outside specialty cardiology. In a recent open-access Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine study, veterinary students trained in focused cardiac ultrasonography achieved moderate overall agreement with cardiologists when categorizing dogs with subclinical MMVD, with better performance in dogs whose measurements were clearly below or above decision thresholds. That same study underscored a familiar challenge: novice operators were more likely to misclassify dogs near cutoffs, and measurement performance depended heavily on technical execution. (academic.oup.com)
Against that backdrop, the new JVECC education study’s main finding is practical rather than surprising: interpretation and acquisition are different skills. Students may be able to learn to read an LA:Ao image from video instruction, but generating that image at the bedside appears to benefit from supervised, hands-on practice. That aligns with prior veterinary ultrasound education work suggesting some point-of-care sonography tasks can be taught effectively with video, while technically demanding views still improve with live or practical instruction. (experts.illinois.edu)
Direct outside commentary on this specific paper was limited in the sources available, but the industry context points in the same direction. Educational and clinical literature around focused ultrasound increasingly treats image acquisition as the rate-limiting step for reliable use in practice. Once a diagnostic-quality view is obtained, interpretation can often be standardized more readily through asynchronous teaching tools, recorded examples, and case-based review. That’s an inference drawn from the pattern across the available studies, rather than a direct quote from the authors. (academic.oup.com)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, especially general practitioners, emergency clinicians, interns, and recent graduates, this study supports a more targeted training model. If the goal is to expand point-of-care cardiac ultrasound capacity, programs may not need to devote equal in-person teaching time to every part of the workflow. Interpretation may be scalable through video modules, while scarce faculty time is better spent on probe handling, view optimization, and repeatable image capture. That could make training more efficient without lowering standards, particularly for practices trying to build confidence around murmur workups, MMVD staging, or triage of dyspneic patients. (academic.oup.com)
There’s also a quality and safety angle. In MMVD staging, treatment decisions can hinge in part on echocardiographic thresholds such as LA:Ao ≥1.6, and prior research shows agreement weakens around borderline cases. That means the educational takeaway isn’t simply “video works,” but rather “video may work for some components.” For clinics relying on focused ultrasound to inform referral decisions or monitor progression, acquisition quality remains central to avoiding false reassurance or overcalling enlargement. (academic.oup.com)
What to watch: The next step will be whether educators validate this approach in practicing clinicians, not just students, and whether future studies tie teaching method to downstream clinical accuracy, retention of skills over time, and decision-making in real-world cases. (vetlit.org)