A Comparison of the Efficacy of Two Omeprazole Formulations in the Treatment of Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome in Racehorses: A Blinded, Randomized Clinical Trial.

Equine gastric ulcer syndrome (EGUS) is the most common disease of the stomach in horses and treatment is based on the oral administration of omeprazole for at least 28 days. Aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of two formulations of oral omeprazole-powder paste and gastro-enteric resistant granules-in the treatment of naturally occurring gastric ulcers in racehorses. Thirty-two adult racehorses, aged between 2 and 10 years old, with clinical signs of EGUS were included in this blinded, randomized clinical trial. Two gastroscopies were performed to evaluate gastric lesions in the squamous or glandular mucosa before and after 28 days of treatment. After the first gastroscopy, 2/32 horses were excluded because affected by equine squamous gastric disease (ESGD) 1/4. The remaining horses were divided into 4 groups, and were treated with 2 formulations of omeprazole (gastroenteric resistant granules, group 1, or powder paste, group 3) or with 2 placebo formulations (granules, group 2, or paste, group 4). Treatments were performed in the placebo horses affected by ESGD or equine glandular gastric disease after the T28 gastroscopy control. No differences were found between groups at T0. Differences were found between T0 vs. T28 for granular (P = .002) and powder paste (P = .01) formulations. No differences were detected between the two groups receiving omeprazole formulations at T28 (0.34) and between T0 vs. T28 for either of the groups receiving placebo treatments. For all the variables, the size of the effect was greater than 0.5, proving that the treatments had a considerable effect. Gastro-enteric resistant granules and powder paste omeprazole showed similar efficacy in the treatment of ESGD. The glandular mucosa responded poorly to treatment with omeprazole.

Ureteral Endoscopy to Detect Upper Urinary Tract Diseases in Horses.

Ureteral endoscopy is a routine procedure in human medicine, whereas the reports of this procedure on horses are few and far between. The aim of this paper is to describe the endoscopic technique to evaluate the ureters in standing, sedated horses. An endoscopy of the ureters and lower urinary tract was performed using flexible endoscopes on 4 horses, 3 mares and one gelding. The animals were sedated with alpha-2-agonists and an epidural anaesthesia was given. An endoscopy of the ureter in the horse is easy to perform, causes the animal no adverse effects and could provide significant information on the diagnosis and prognosis of diseases of the urinary tract.

A specific laryngeal finding in dogs with bronchial vegetal foreign bodies: a retrospective study of 63 cases.

Grass awns commonly cause respiratory disease in dogs; when located in the trachea or bronchi, they cause severe bronchial inflammation and sepsis. The interplay of cough, bronchoconstriction, and mucus secretion can result in a less effective expulsive cough phase, especially when the causal factor persists. The bronchial exudate could consequently become trapped in the upper respiratory tracts of dogs with bronchial vegetal foreign bodies. We retrospectively reviewed endoscopic findings of the upper respiratory tract in dogs that underwent bronchoscopy in our hospital and correlated these findings with the presence of bronchial grass awns. Muco-purulent exudate in the ventral larynx region, between the vocal cords and laryngeal ventricles, was frequently associated with the presence of bronchial grass awns. This laryngeal finding could be secondary to an altered response to grass awn localization in the bronchi. These results should be carefully considered, particularly in countries where grass awns are commonly found.

The concordance between endoscopic and histological diagnosis in 114 dogs affected by gastric disease.

Endoscopy is a common, minimally invasive diagnostic technique that can be used to observe internal organs, e.g. the stomach, and to obtain mucosal bioptic samples for histo pathological examination. The aim of this study was to analyse the concordance between endoscopic and histological evaluation of gastric diseases in dogs. One hundred twenty-nine medical records of dogs undergoing gastroscopy have been received and stored by the Veterinary Hospital of Perugia University (Perugia, Italy) between 2009-2012. The concordance between endoscopic and histological reports of acute and chronic gastritis or gastric tumours was assessed by Cohen's k coe cient. Considering histological diagnosis as the "gold standard", sensitivity, speci city, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of the endoscopic report have been calculated. Frequencies of gastritis types di ered between macroscopic and microscopic analyses. The evaluation of histological and endoscopic agreement was fair (0.35). Endoscopy showed sensitivity of 45%, 88%, and 100% for acute gastritis, chronic gastritis, and gastric tumours, respectively; and speci city of 84%, 71%, and 100%. The positive predictive value and NPV resulted to be 25% and 93% for acute gastritis, 93% and 60 % for chronic gastritis, 100% and 100% for gastric tumours. The results of this study show that gastric endoscopy cannot be performed as a screening exam, and that to optimise diagnosis both endoscopic and histological exam should be conducted.