Association between equine asthma and fungal elements in the tracheal wash: An environment-matched case-control study.

Autor: Dély S; Vetsuisse Faculty, Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Swiss Institute of Equine Medicine (ISME), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland., Gerber V; Vetsuisse Faculty, Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Swiss Institute of Equine Medicine (ISME), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland., Peters LM; Vetsuisse Faculty, Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland., Sage SE; Vetsuisse Faculty, Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Swiss Institute of Equine Medicine (ISME), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2024 Sep 06; Vol. 19 (9), pp. e0309835. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Sep 06 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0309835
Abstrakt: The presence of fungi in tracheal wash (TW) of horses was recently linked to mild-moderate equine asthma, indicating a possible causal role; however, increased numbers of fungi may also stem from asthma-related alteration of tracheal mucus clearance or from environmental exposure. Our objective was to elucidate the association between the presence of fungi in TW and asthma status while controlling for relevant confounders. We conducted a retrospective case-control study involving 73 horses, including 34 controls and 39 asthmatic cases. Each asthmatic horse was matched with a control from the same barn to account for the influence of environmental exposure. All horses underwent respiratory clinical scoring, endoscopy, TW, and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). The association between asthma status and presence of TW fungi was tested with multivariable logistic regression modelling, accounting for selected management factors, tracheal mucus accumulation, and selected TW and BAL cytological characteristics, including multinucleated giant cells (MGCs) in the TW. Given the variability in MGC definitions in the literature, particularly concerning their morphology and number of nuclei, we constructed two distinct models for each outcome (asthma status or presence of fungi in TW): one considering MGCs as cells with ≥ 3 nuclei, and another using a criterion of ≥ 10 nuclei. Horses with a tracheal mucus score ≥ 2 exhibited 3.6 to 4.3 higher odds of being asthmatic, depending on the MGC definition. None of the other variables examined were associated with either asthma status or TW fungi detection. Notably, the presence of fungal elements in the TW was not associated with equine asthma.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2024 Dély et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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