BRONCHOALVEOLAR LAVAGE IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF RESPIRATORY DISEASES IN HORSES

Bìol. Tvarin, 2017, Volume 19, Issue 1, pp. 73–82

http://doi.org/10.15407/animbiol19.01.073

BRONCHOALVEOLAR LAVAGE IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF RESPIRATORY DISEASES IN HORSES

А. Niedźwiedź¹, H. Borowicz¹, I. Maksymovych², L. Slivinskа², K. Кubiak¹

maksym_vet@ukr.net, artur.niedzwiedz@up.wroc.pl

¹Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences,
47 Grunwald Square, Wrocław 50-366, Poland

²Lviv National University of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnologies named after S. Z. Gzhytsky,
50 Pekarska str., Lviv 79010, Ukraine

The article presents the results of research of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) in horses with recurrent airway obstruction (RAO), inflammatory airway disease (IAD), exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH).

The study was performed on horses of different directions (sports, work, recreation). As the material for the study 25 horses of different breeds and sexes at age 2 to 19 years were used.

The indications for BAL in horses were coughing, especially during exercise, mucous-purulent nasal discharge, a persistent tachypnea, dyspnea during rest, fever, reduced performance and intolerance to exercise, a large number of mucus, purulent exudate and blood identified in endoscopic examination of the lower respiratory tract.

BAL in horses was performed under visual control with the videoendoscope EC-530LP FUJION (specifications: distal end diameter 11.0 mm; tool channel diameter 3.2 mm; working length 1690 mm; total length 1990 mm).

The EIPH diagnostic criterion is the presence of blood in the lower respiratory tract which is revealed during endoscopy in 75–95 % of deseased horses. The EIPH diagnosis can be confirmed by identifying erytrophages or hemosiderophages in BAL samples, which proportion can be for over 50 % of all macrophages present in the sample.

BAL in horses with IAD is characterized with increase of total cell population, the absolute and relative number of neutrophils (15–20%). If RAO in cytological specimens obtained by BAL a mixed population of cells is revealed, the largest quantitative group of which are neutrophils (15–85 % of the total cell population).

Bronchoalveolar lavage is an informative method of diagnostics of load-induced pulmonary hemorrhage, inflammatory diseases of the lower respiratory tract, recurrent airway obstruction. Analysis of BAL cytogram allows making a differential diagnosis of lower respiratory tract disease in horses.

Keywords: BRONCHOSCOPY, HORSES, BRONCHOALVEOLAR LAVAGE, TRACHEAL ASPIRATION, CYTOGRAM, RECURRENT AIRWAY OBSTRUCTION

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