Kozłowska Natalia, Wierzbicka Małgorzata, Jasiński Tomasz, Domino Małgorzata
Department of Large Animal Diseases and Clinic, Institute of Veterinary Medicine, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland.
Animals (Basel). 2022 Feb 4;12(3):381. doi: 10.3390/ani12030381.
The horse, as a flight animal with a survival strategy involving rapid escape from predators, is a natural-born athlete with enormous functional plasticity of the respiratory system. Any respiratory dysfunction can cause a decline in ventilation and gas exchange. Therefore, respiratory diseases often lead to exercise intolerance and poor performance. This is one of the most frequent problems encountered by equine internists. Routine techniques used to evaluate respiratory tract diseases include clinical examination, endoscopic examination, radiographic and ultrasonographic imaging, cytological evaluation, and bacterial culture of respiratory secretions. New diagnostic challenges and the growing development of equine medicine has led to the implementation of advanced diagnostic techniques successfully used in human medicine. Among them, the use of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging significantly broadened the possibilities of anatomical imaging, especially in the diagnosis of upper respiratory tract diseases. Moreover, the implementation of spirometry, electrical impedance tomography (EIT), and impulse oscillation system (IOS) sheds new light on functional diagnostics of respiratory tract diseases, especially those affecting the lower part. Therefore, this review aimed to familiarize the clinicians with the advantages and disadvantages of the advanced diagnostic techniques of the equine respiratory tract and introduce their recent clinical applications in equine medicine.
马作为一种具有通过快速逃离捕食者来生存策略的奔跑动物，是天生的运动员，其呼吸系统具有巨大的功能可塑性。任何呼吸功能障碍都可能导致通气和气体交换下降。因此，呼吸系统疾病常导致运动不耐受和表现不佳。这是马内科医生最常遇到的问题之一。用于评估呼吸道疾病的常规技术包括临床检查、内镜检查、放射成像和超声成像、细胞学评估以及呼吸道分泌物细菌培养。新的诊断挑战以及马医学的不断发展促使人们采用在人类医学中成功应用的先进诊断技术。其中，计算机断层扫描（CT）和磁共振（MR）成像的应用显著拓宽了解剖成像的可能性，尤其是在上呼吸道疾病的诊断方面。此外，肺功能测定、电阻抗断层扫描（EIT）和脉冲振荡系统（IOS）的应用为呼吸道疾病的功能诊断带来了新的曙光，尤其是那些影响下呼吸道的疾病。因此，本综述旨在使临床医生熟悉马呼吸道先进诊断技术的优缺点，并介绍它们在马医学中的最新临床应用。
