Respiratory fluids in the horse athlete: cytological evaluation.
Les liquides respiratoires chez le cheval athlète: évaluation cytologique.
Résumé
The cytological evaluation of respiratory fluids is one important tool for the diagnosis of respiratory troubles in the equine athlete. This review aims to provide the practitioner with enough data in order to objectively interpret both results and cytodiagnosis reported by the laboratory. Different studies and consensus statements have indeed proposed reference values of cell counts in respiratory fluids of healthy and horses (sub-)clinically affected by inflammatory airway disease or exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage. Besides, the association between these troubles and poor-performance is currently well described in the literature.