ABSTRACT
REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY: Few studies have evaluated the athletic prognosis of foals affected by gastrocnemius disruption. OBJECTIVE: To examine the diagnosis and management of gastrocnemius disruption in Thoroughbred (TB) foals, determine short-term survival rate and assess future racing performance. The hypothesis was that Thoroughbred foals with gastrocnemius disruption are able to perform as racehorses comparably to their age matched maternal siblings. METHODS: The medical records of foals diagnosed with gastrocnemius muscle disruption were reviewed. Information on training and racing was acquired from published works and race records. Paired t tests were utilised to compare performance variables of affected racehorses to their maternal siblings in starts, earnings and earnings/start for their 2- and 3-year-old racing seasons. Fisher's exact tests were employed to determine the association between sex, limb affected, age on admission, degree of caudal reciprocal apparatus dysfunction, concurrent disease, antibiotic therapy, complications, abscess formation and likelihood of entering training or starting a race. RESULTS: Sample size was too small to detect significant differences in performance variables between affected horses and controls. Of 28 foals, 17 (61%) presented with concomitant illness; foals without concurrent disease were more likely to achieve race training or start a race (P = 0.04); 23 (82%) were short-term survivors defined as survival to discharge. Of these 23 survivors, 7 were aged <2 years at the time of the study. Eighty-one percent (13/16) of the survivors that were of racing age were in training or had started a race. CONCLUSIONS: In this population, 82% of TB foals affected with gastrocnemius disruption were able to achieve training or start a race. Foals presenting for gastrocnemius disruption have a high prevalence of concurrent disease processes. POTENTIAL RELEVANCE: The assessment of athletic prognosis and treatment complications provides useful information to clinicians treating gastrocnemius muscle disruption in foals and making recommendations to clientele.
Subject(s)
Horse Diseases/therapy , Muscle, Skeletal/injuries , Muscular Diseases/veterinary , Physical Conditioning, Animal/physiology , Animals , Female , Horse Diseases/pathology , Horses , Male , Muscular Diseases/therapy , Prognosis , Retrospective Studies , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
The activity of pleconaril in cell culture against prototypic enterovirus strains and 215 clinical isolates of the most commonly isolated enterovirus serotypes was examined. The latter viruses were isolated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the 1970s and 1980s from clinically ill subjects. Pleconaril at a concentration of =0.03 microM inhibited the replication of 50% of all clinical isolates tested. Ninety percent of the isolates were inhibited at a drug concentration of =0.18 microM. The most sensitive serotype, echovirus serotype 11, was also the most prevalent enterovirus in the United States from 1970 to 1983. Pleconaril was further tested for oral activity in three animal models of lethal enterovirus infection: coxsackievirus serotype A9 infection in suckling mice, coxsackievirus serotype A21 strain Kenny infection in weanling mice, and coxsackievirus serotype B3 strain M infection in adult mice. Treatment with pleconaril increased the survival rate in all three models for both prophylactic and therapeutic dosing regimens. Moreover, pleconaril dramatically reduced virus levels in target tissues of coxsackievirus serotype B3 strain M-infected animals. Pleconaril represents a promising new drug candidate for potential use in the treatment of human enteroviral infections.