M. Manohar et Te. Goetz, PULMONARY VASCULAR PRESSURES OF EXERCISING THOROUGHBRED HORSES WITH AND WITHOUT ENDOSCOPIC EVIDENCE OF EIPH, Journal of applied physiology, 81(4), 1996, pp. 1589-1593
Exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH) is a common occurrence in
racehorses. The objective of this study was to compare pulmonary vasc
ular pressures of healthy Thoroughbred horses with and without postexe
rtion endoscopically detectable fresh blood in the trachea. The nasoph
arynx, larynx, and trachea (down to the carina) of horses were examine
d weekly with an endoscope 55-60 min postexertion, and the diagnosis o
f EIPH was confirmed by the presence of fresh blood in the trachea. Me
asurements of heart rate and right atrial, pulmonary arterial, and pul
monary arterial wedge pressures were made during quiet rest and during
treadmill exercise performed at 14.5 m/s on a 5% uphill grade. This w
orkload elicited maximal heart rate of the horses. Mean pulmonary capi
llary pressure was estimated to be halfway between the mean pulmonary
arterial pressure and the mean pulmonary arterial wedge pressure. Thes
e data from 7 healthy sound exercise-trained horses that were positive
on 12 consecutive occasions (at 1-wk intervals) for the postexercise
presence of fresh blood in the trachea were compared with those in 8 h
ealthy horses that were consistently negative for the evidence of fres
h blood in the trachea on postexercise endoscopic examination over 12-
16 wk. The heart rate and the right heart and/or pulmonary vascular pr
essures in the two groups of horses were similar at rest. Exercise was
attended by a large significant (P < 0.05) increase in these pressure
s and heart rate in both groups. However, statistically significant di
fferences between endoscopically EIPH-positive and endoscopically EIPH
-negative horses for heart rate and right atrial and pulmonary vascula
r pressures were not found during exercise. Thus these data revealed t
hat the magnitude of exercise-induced right atrial as well as pulmonar
y arterial, capillary, and venous hypertension in endoscopically EIPH-
positive horses that are otherwise healthy is quite similar to that in
endoscopically EIPH-negative horses during comparable exertion.