الكاتب: Multiple References

Our research included 13 adult horses of different ages and breeds that had been referred to our clinic and suspected of having a pulmonary disease. The criteria for diagnosing recurrent airway obstruction (RAO) included having had, for a period longer than two months, clinical signs of a pulmonary disease likely to have been associated with the presence of hay and/or straw in the affected horse's environment. It also included finding pathological changes during a clinical examination, the presence of excessive respiratory secretions in the trachea during a bronchoscopic examination, a reduction in the partial pressure of the arterial oxygen and neutrophilia in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. All the horses used in our study met this criteria. The most common clinical signs of RAO include high breathing frequency, a white serous or mucous nasal discharge, coughing and dyspnoea. We find that measuring the partial pressure of oxygen in the arterial blood is a reliable means of determining that a pulmonary disease is present and that a bronchoscopic examinationis is a reliable diagnostic method for examination of airways. We established that neutrophilic inflammation was in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and that two thirds of the examined horses were stabled most of the time.