Special Issue "Equine Respiratory Medicine and Cardiology"

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Equids".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Francesco Ferrucci
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Veterinary Medicine, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy
Interests: equine internal medicine; equine sports medicine; respiratory diseases; cardiac disorders
Dr. Chiara Maria Lo Feudo
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Veterinary Medicine, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy
Interests: equine; internal medicine; sports medicine; respiratory medicine; equine asthma
Dr. Luca Stucchi
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Veterinary Medicine, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy
Interests: equine; internal medicine; sports medicine; respiratory medicine; equine asthma

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Diseases involving the respiratory system of the horse are a major concern in equine internal medicine. In fact, up to 15% of horses living in the Northern Hemisphere suffer from equine asthma. In foals, respiratory infections represent one of the most relevant issues in stud management; in racehorses, respiratory disorders are the second most common cause of reduced performance after orthopaedic diseases.

Moreover, respiratory affections are often associated with cardiovascular dysfunction. Racehorses with atrial fibrillation, for example, can suffer from exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage. Severe respiratory infections can be related to endocarditis; in severely asthmatic horses, the remodelling of the airways also involves the pulmonary arteries, leading to pulmonary hypertension and cor pulmonale.

Therefore, the study of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases is currently a hot topic in equine medicine. For this reason, we are proposing a Special Issue titled “Equine Respiratory Medicine and Cardiology”, and we invite you to submit your research papers reporting the latest results of your work or interesting clinical cases on this topic.

Prof. Dr. Francesco Ferrucci, DVM
Dr. Chiara Maria Lo Feudo
Dr. Luca Stucchi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • horse
  • equine asthma
  • pneumonia
  • exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage
  • endoscopy
  • bronchoalveolar lavage fluid
  • poor performance
  • heart disease
  • echocardiography
  • cardiac arrhythmia

Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission, see below for planned papers.

Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Title: Within-breath input impedance by impulse oscillometry in severe asthmatic horses
Authors: Prof. Dr. Francesco Ferrucci, DVM
Affiliation: Department of Veterinary Science for Health, Animal Production and Food Safety, Università degli Studi di Milanodisabled, Milan, Italy
Abstract: Impulse Oscillometry System (IOS) detects pulmonary obstruction in horses measuring average total respiratory system impedance (Zrs). In humans, analysis of within-breath changes of Zrs allows to identify the presence of expiratory flow limitation. Aims of this study are to describe the inspiratory and expiratory Zrs parameters measured by IOS in asthmatic horses and to determine whether they allow the detection of residual airway obstruction in asthmatic horses in disease remission. Seven severely asthmatic horses in disease exacerbation (HE), 7 asthmatic horses in clinical remission (HR) and 7 control horses (HC) from a cohort of experimental age-matched animals underwent IOS testing. Only data at 3, 5 and 7Hz with coherence >0.85 at 3Hz and >0.9 at 5 and 7Hz were considered in this study. Mean, inspiratory and expiratory resistance (R) and reactance (X) and the difference between inspiratory and expiratory X (ΔX) were calculated at each frequency. The three groups were compared using Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn’s multiple comparison tests. HE differed from HC for all R parameters at 3Hz and all X parameters at all frequencies (p<0.01-0.001). HE differed from HR (p<0.05) for R3, R3e, X3e, X5e. HR differed from HC for X7i (p<0.05). ΔX was higher (p<0.05) in HE than in HC (5 Hz) or HR (all frequencies, P<0.01-0.001). Results indicate that as reported in humans during tidal expiratory flow limitation, Xrs during the expiratory phase is more negative than during inspiration in HE. Difference in X7i appears to be promising to discriminate between HC and HR.

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