The effects of three models of airway disease on tidal breathing flow-volume loops of thoroughbred horses.

The effects of histamine and methacholine aerosols and of a fixed inspiratory resistance on tidal breathing flow-volume loops (TBFVL) were investigated using 18 unsedated, standing, healthy thoroughbred horses. The data were first analysed using traditional flow-volume loop indices and then reduced using standardized factor scoring coefficients obtained in a previous study in this laboratory using similar experimental techniques. On the basis of resting TBFVL analysis, the degree of pulmonary dysfunction caused by inhalation of histamine and methacholine aerosols with concentrations of 10 and 2 mg/ml, respectively, was similar. The fixed resistance also caused significant changes in the resting spirogram and TBFVL indices, suggesting that this model may prove valuable for further studies involving upper respiratory tract (URT) conditions. Administration of histamine and methacholine aerosols resulted in significant changes in all factor scores, although most of the observed changes were due to the effects of these aerosols on the respiratory rate. These findings re-emphasize the importance of the effects of respiratory rate on pulmonary mechanics. Application of the resistance resulted in significant changes in factor score 3, the 'inspiratory' factor, which lends support to the validity of this model for URT conditions. The close agreement between the factor scores obtained under controlled conditions in this study and in a previous study in this laboratory confirms that the factor analysis used for both of these studies provides an adequate means of reducing TBFVL data obtained from thoroughbred horses. The large intra- and inter-individual variation observed both with the indices of TBFVL and with the factor scores limits the potential of these variables for detecting individual animals with obstructive airway disease. Re-evaluation of these indices under the stress of exercise may reduce the variability observed in these data and may increase the magnitude of differences between different animals, providing a means of detecting individual animals with subclinical obstructive airway conditions.

Characterization of normal tidal breathing flow-volume loops for thoroughbred horses.

The purpose of this study was to characterize the normal equine tidal breathing flow-volume loop (TBFVL). The study was performed using 18 healthy Thoroughbred horses. TBFVLs constructed from data collected from resting horses had a typical biphasic inspiratory and expiratory phase. The interindividual variability of the indices used to describe TBFVLs was in the range 16-32%, which is comparable to the variability of other measures of equine pulmonary mechanics. The large variability of these data probably limits the value of resting TBFVL indices for detecting subclinical respiratory conditions in individual horses. Factor analysis of these data revealed that in excess of 90% of the variance of the initial response variables could be explained in terms of three common factors. Varimax rotation of these three common factors provided three subsequent factors that were readily identifiable as (1) a factor describing the time-volume relationships of TBFVLs, responsible for 81% of the total variance, (2) a factor explaining the expiratory portion of the TBFVL, explaining 12% of the variance, and (3) a factor describing the inspiratory portion of the loops, responsible for the remaining 7% of the variance. The analysis also provided standardized factor scoring coefficients for use in subsequent studies using similar experimental techniques.

Temporal effects of inhaled histamine and methacholine aerosols on the pulmonary mechanics of thoroughbred horses.

This paper presents a method for on-line determination of pulmonary mechanics in standing, non-sedated horses during and following inhalation of aerosolized drug solutions. This method was used to evaluate the temporal effects of inhaled histamine and methacholine aerosols on pulmonary mechanics in 18 Thoroughbred horses. The following were concluded from this study. The extremely large between-breath variation, for all variables used to evaluate pulmonary mechanics in the horse, limits the usefulness of these variables for modeling the non-specific pulmonary responses to inhaled stimulants on a breath-by-breath basis. Following the implementation of averaging techniques to control the variation of these response variables, respiratory rate appears to be affected most predictably by inhalation of non-specific bronchoconstrictors. In the 18 subjects studied, the response of respiratory rate to inhaled histamine and methacholine aerosols was well described by a complex function consisting of exponential treatment and post-treatment phases in 10 and six of the subjects, respectively. Large intra-individual variation of the non-specific response to these stimulants in repeated studies of some subjects, suggests that differences in responses on a particular day may be due to inter-day variations in minute ventilation or baseline airway caliber.