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Comparative efficacy of three common treatments for equine recurrent airway obstruction

Objective - evaluate horses with acute airway obstruction using three treatment regimens: tapering doses of dexamethasone (DEX), environmental modification (ENV), and a combination of both treatments (DEX + ENV) by analyzing clinical parameters, pulmonary function testing, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) cytology and BALF cell expression of the cytokines IFN-? and IL-4

Animals - 6 horses with recurrent airway obstruction (RAO)

Procedures - Clinical examination, pulmonary function test, and collection of BALF prior to treatment and during 22 day treatment period

Hypothesis - Alterations in clinical parameters, pulmonary function and airway inflammation in acute equine RAO will return to remission values by treating with DEX, ENV or DEX + ENV

Results - All horses demonstrated clinical disease, reduced pulmonary dynamic compliance (Cdyn) and an increased maximum change in pleural pressures (?Pplmax) when in a challenge environment. All treatments improved clinical parameters, ?Pplmax and Cdyn. BALF cytology during an RAO crisis demonstrated neutrophilic inflammation. ENV or DEX + ENV resulted in a significant decrease in airway neutrophilia that was maintained throughout the treatment period. In contrast, treatment with DEX caused a reduction in airway neutrophilia initially followed by a rebound neutrophilia as the period between administrations of dexamethasone (0.05mg/kg) was increased to 72 hours. The rebound neutrophilia was not accompanied by equivalent deterioration in clinical parameters or pulmonary function.

Conclusions - Environmental modification is important in the management of RAO horses. Treatment of clinical RAO with a decreasing dosage protocol of corticosteroids in the absence of environmental modification results in the persistence of airway inflammation without recrudescence of clinical disease. / Master of Science

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/76818
Date17 August 2009
CreatorsLee, Laura Caryn
ContributorsVeterinary Medical Sciences, Zimmerman, Kurt L., Witonsky, Sharon G., Buechner-Maxwell, Virginia A.
PublisherVirginia Tech
Source SetsVirginia Tech Theses and Dissertation
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis, Text
Formatapplication/pdf
RightsIn Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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