Breath characteristics and adventitious lung sounds in healthy and asthmatic horses.
Authors: Greim Eloïse, Naef Jan, Mainguy-Seers Sophie, Lavoie Jean-Pierre, Sage Sophie, Dolf Gaudenz, Gerber Vinzenz
Journal: Journal of veterinary internal medicine
Summary
# Breath characteristics and adventitious lung sounds in healthy and asthmatic horses Standard stethoscopic examination has inherent limitations in detecting equine respiratory disease, and until now, no systematic quantitative analysis of breath sound patterns has existed to differentiate healthy from asthmatic horses. Researchers employed a novel digital auscultation device (DAD) to simultaneously record from 11 thoracic locations in 34 horses (12 healthy controls, 12 with mild-to-moderate equine asthma, and 10 with severe asthma—split between remission and active exacerbation)—randomly selecting and blindly categorising 100 breaths per horse for statistical comparison. Horses experiencing severe asthma exacerbation exhibited markedly elevated frequencies of wheezes (68.6%), crackles (66.1%), and rattles (17.7%), alongside significantly increased breath intensity (all P<0.01), whereas horses in remission and those with mild-to-moderate disease showed minimal adventitious sounds comparable to healthy controls. Breath duration and intensity emerged as key variables distinguishing disease groups, with wheeze presence correlating to tracheal mucus scoring and combined breath intensity and wheeze patterns predicting clinical severity scores. Whilst the DAD technology shows considerable promise for objective respiratory assessment and may enhance diagnostic accuracy in identifying active asthma exacerbations, the sample remains modest for definitively characterising sound patterns in milder disease or remission states, suggesting larger prospective studies are warranted before widespread clinical implementation.
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Practical Takeaways
- •Digital auscultation may offer a more objective, standardized method for diagnosing and monitoring equine asthma severity than traditional stethoscope examination, particularly for detecting wheezes and crackles in acute exacerbations
- •The absence of adventitious sounds in remission cases suggests this tool could help assess treatment efficacy and determine when respiratory conditions have stabilized
- •Breath intensity and duration changes appear more sensitive markers for disease state classification than presence/absence of sounds alone, warranting integration into clinical evaluation protocols
Key Findings
- •Digital auscultation device successfully characterized and quantified breath sounds in horses across 11 simultaneous recording locations
- •Wheezes (68.6%), crackles (66.1%), and elevated breath intensity (97.9%) were significantly more frequent in horses with severe asthma in exacerbation compared to controls (P<0.01 to P<0.001)
- •Severe asthmatic horses in remission showed minimal adventitious sounds (0% wheezes, 0.7% crackles), comparable to healthy controls and mild-moderate asthma cases
- •Breath duration and intensity were identified as key explanatory variables for disease classification, while wheezes correlated with tracheal mucus score