Summary
Gastroscopic examinations were performed on 67 Thoroughbred horses in training at a race track and repeat examinations performed in 35 horses, 2 to 3 months later. Horses were age 2–9 years and included 16 two‐year‐olds, 32 three‐year‐olds and 19 horses ≥ 4‐years‐old. Forty‐two of the 67 horses had raced within the 2 months before the initial examination and the remaining 25 horses were in training. Sixty‐two of the 67 horses (93%) had one or more lesions present in the gastric mucosa and lesions were present in all of the 42 horses that had raced. Thirty‐two of the 35 horses, examined twice (91%), had gastric lesions on the first examination and all had lesions on the second examination. Four sites of the gastric squamous epithelium were graded for lesion severity on a scale of 0 to 10 and the mean maximum squamous mucosal lesion score was significantly (P<0.01) greater for the second examination (4.89) than for the first examination (3.63). Maximum lesion scores were greater in 24 horses, no different in 5 horses and less in 6 horses on the second examination. The difference in mean maximum lesion scores between examinations was greatest in horses age 2 years, increasing from 1.75 to 4.00 (P = 0.014). Lesions in the gastric glandular mucosa also were scored on a scale of 0 to 10 and there was no difference in mean lesion scores in the glandular mucosa between the first and second examinations (1.89 vs. 1.90).
Lesion scores were compared for gender, racing history and medication with nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs, systemic corticosteroid or ACTH, or frusemide within the previous 2 months. Except for racing history, there were no significant differences in mean lesion scores for squamous or glandular mucosa based on these comparisons, indicating that there was no effect of gender or medication history on ulcer severity in the horses of our study. Mean maximum gastric squamous mucosal lesion score was significantly (P<0.01) greater in horses that had raced (4.51) than for horses that had not raced (2.36) in the 2 months before the endoscopic examination. There was no difference in mean glandular mucosal lesion scores between horses that had raced (1.93) compared to horses that had not raced (1.13).
Chronic enalapril treatment of dogs with naturally occurring, moderate to severe MR significantly delayed onset of CHF, compared with placebo, on the basis of number of CHF-free days, number of dogs free of CHF at days 500 and study end, and increased time to a combined secondary endpoint of CHF-all-cause death. Improvement in the primary endpoint, CHF-free survival, was not significant. Results suggest that enalapril modestly delays the onset of CHF in dogs with moderate to severe MR.
Abstract. Six horses (five males) aged three months to fourteen years had endocarditis at necropsy. Two of the horses had a clinical diagnosis of valvular endocarditis with negative blood cultures. Single or complex valvular involvement was present in five horses. One horse had non-infectious thrombi associated only with the chordae tendineae. Mitral valves were affected in four horses, and aortic semilunar valves were affected in two. Infarcts had occurred in the kidneys and the myocardium of four horses. Bacteria were isolated postmortem from the valvular vegetations of two horses; Candida parapsilosis was isolated and demonstrated morphologically in a third horse.
And Clinical Relevance: Results suggest that administration of enalapril for up to 2 years did not have any demonstrable adverse effects on renal function in dogs with severe, compensated mitral regurgitation.
Results suggest that although administration of the commercially available paste omeprazole formulation was effective in promoting healing of gastric ulcers in these horses, administration of the compounded omeprazole suspension was ineffective.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.