Omega‐3 Fatty Acid Supplementation Provides an Additional Benefit to a Low‐Dust Diet in the Management of Horses with Chronic Lower Airway Inflammatory Disease

Background

Omega‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) may benefit humans and animals with chronic inflammatory diseases.

Hypothesis

Omega‐3 PUFA supplementation improves clinical signs, lung function, and airway inflammation in horses with recurrent airway obstruction (RAO) and inflammatory airway disease (IAD).

Animals

Eight research horses and 35 client‐owned horses.

Methods

A pilot study examined the dose of PUFA that can alter plasma PUFA composition. Then, a randomized, controlled clinical trial was performed in horses with RAO and IAD. Horses were fed a complete pelleted diet with no hay and randomly assigned to 1 of 3 daily treatments for 2 months: 30 or 60 g of the supplement or 30 g of placebo. Clinical signs, lung function, plasma PUFA composition, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) cytology were evaluated. Data were expressed as median (25–75th percentiles). P < .05 was considered significant.

Results

Polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation resulted in increased plasma docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) that peaked at 4 weeks. Clinical improvement was noted in all horses involved in the clinical trial, but the group that received PUFA had greater improvement in clinical signs (cough score improved 60%), lung function (respiratory effort decreased 48%), and BALF (neutrophils decreased from 23 to 9%) when compared to placebo (cough score improved 33%, respiratory effort decreased 27%, BALF neutrophils increased from 11 to 17%; P < .05).

Conclusions and Clinical Importance

Feeding horses with RAO and IAD a PUFA supplement containing 1.5–3 g DHA for 2 months provides an additional benefit to low‐dust diet.     

新疆野生胀果甘草止咳、祛痰和抗炎作用研究

目的:研究新疆野生胀果甘草的止咳、祛痰和抗炎效果,探讨其药理作用。方法:以小白鼠为靶动物,以甘草水提取物、甘草酸粉为试剂,采用氨水致咳试验、气管段酚红试验和二甲苯致小鼠耳廓肿胀试验观察甘草止咳祛痰和抗炎效果。结果:甘草水提取物对浓氨水所致小鼠咳嗽有非常明显的抑制作用,能显著增加气管酚红的排泌,并能抑制小鼠耳廓肿胀,甘草酸粉效果略差。结论:新疆野生胀果甘草对小鼠具有明显的止咳、祛痰和抗炎作用。     

茯苓粉碎分散处理对小儿肺咳颗粒水分散性的影响

[目的]提高小儿肺咳颗粒用药顺应性。[方法]在小儿肺咳颗粒制备过程中,使用经卵磷脂粉碎分散处理的茯苓粉末,采用浊度光度法和Zeta电位等表征茯苓粉末和小儿肺咳颗粒的水分散性。[结果]茯苓粉碎过程中加入1.0%的卵磷脂,相对于未经处理的茯苓粉末,混悬液吸光度变化率减少12.9%,Zeta电位绝对值增大118%;使用经卵磷脂粉碎分散处理的茯苓粉末制备的小儿肺咳颗粒,其混悬液粒径80μm左右,20 s内吸光度变化率5.0%,明显优于原处方小儿肺咳颗粒。[结论]在小儿肺咳颗粒制备过程中,使用经粉碎分散处理的茯苓粉末可较好地提高其用药顺应性。     

Identification and characterization of an idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis-like condition in cats

Interstitial lung diseases are a heterogeneous group of disorders with a variety of causes. In veterinary medicine, such lung diseases with a prominent fibrotic component of unknown etiology are often called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). In human medicine, this term is reserved for a distinct disease entity with specific histologic findings labeled as usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP). We identified 23 cats displaying histologic criteria of UIP The purpose of this retrospective study is to describe the presentation and response to therapy of these cats to better define this disease entity. All but 2 cats were middle aged to older (median 8.7 years), with no apparent sex or breed predisposition. Complaints included respiratory distress (n = 18) and cough (13). Duration of signs was less than 6 months in 17 cats. Physical-examination abnormalities included tachypnea, inspiratory or mixed inspiratory and expiratory effort, and adventitial lung sounds. No consistent hematologic or biochemical abnormalities, parasites, or positive serologic results for feline retroviruses, heartworms, or toxoplasmosis were present. Radiographic changes included dense patchy or diffuse interstitial, bronchiolar, and alveolar infiltrates. Analysis of bronchial lavage fluid revealed mild neutrophilic inflammation (n = 6) with no consistent pathogen growth. Clinical condition of 5 cats worsened after lavage. Coincident pulmonary neoplasia was identified in 6 cats. Response to therapy (corticosteroids, antibiotics, bronchodilators, and diuretics) was poor, and most cats died within days to months. Cats with histologic changes compatible with UIP had signs that mimicked many of the clinical findings of human IPF, and treatment response was similarly unrewarding.     

Real-time recognition of sick pig cough sounds

This paper extends existing cough identification methods and proposes a real-time method for identifying sick pig cough sounds. The analysis and classification is based on the frequency domain characteristics of the signal, while an improved procedure to extract the reference is presented. This technique evaluates fuzzy c-means clustering to parts of the training signals and provides a frequency content reference that mirrors the characteristics of sick pig cough. The extraction of the reference is performed in such a way that allows for the identification process to be implemented in real-time applications that would speed up the diagnosis and treatment process and improve animal welfare in pig houses. Preliminary results for the evaluation of the algorithm are based on individual sounds of healthy and sick animals acquired in laboratory conditions. An 85% overall correct classification ratio is achieved with 82% of the sick cough sounds being correctly identified.     

The influence of respiratory disease on the energy envelope dynamics of pig cough sounds

The objective of this paper is to assess if the dynamics in the energy envelope of pig cough sounds are related to pathological conditions of the respiratory system. Two groups of pigs are compared. The first group, the sick pigs, is suffering from pneumonia by infection of Pasteurella Multocida. The second group, the control group, consists of healthy pigs which produced induced coughs by nebulisation of citric acid. The cough sounds of both groups were used to calculate the energy envelope, after which two signals are derived for further modelling. The first signal is an artificial step input, the second signal is part of the energy envelope of the cough signal that starts at the maximum level and decays in time. Using an autoregressive model estimation technique, the decay of the energy envelope is modelled as an input–output system. Based on the Young Identification Criterion (YIC) and R², the optimal model is proven to be a first order model with a first order denominator. Using this first order transfer function structure to model all cough sounds, the time constant of the simulated output is estimated based on the model parameters. The time constant shows significant higher values for the decay of the cough signals from pigs which are infected with Pasteurella Multocida compared to non-infected pigs (P < 0.0001). The results are in accordance with previous work in which pathological conditions have shown to influence cough sound duration. This modelling technique gives more insight in the effect of changes in lung condition on cough sound generation and might be incorporated in techniques for automatic cough evaluation.