Equine hepatic disease: the effect of patient- and case-specific variables on risk and prognosis.
BACKGROUND
Liver disease is fairly common in horses and, although previous literature suggests that fatality rates are high, impressions gained from current clinical practice suggest that this is no longer the case.


OBJECTIVE
A case-control study was undertaken in 2 hospitals to investigate whether age, gender or breed type predisposed horses to developing hepatic disease, with the additional aim of determining whether these factors and disease category had any effect on outcome.


METHODS
Eighty-eight cases were identified by review of computerised archives at 2 hospitals. Three cases admitted immediately before and after the cases were used as controls. Multivariant models were developed to explore the relationship between age, breed type and gender and the development of liver disease, and within the clinical cases, to identify whether any of these factors or specific forms of liver disease were associated with fatality rate.


RESULTS
Ponies were more likely to develop hepatic disease than light riding horses, but neither age nor gender were significant risk factors. Overall, the fatality rate was fairly low; horses with unclassified hepatopathies had the lowest fatality rate and those with cholangiohepatitis, pyrrolizidine alkaloid toxicity and chronic active hepatitis had significantly higher fatality rates in comparison. However, age, breed type and gender had no detectable effect on outcome.


CONCLUSIONS
Such data could be of particular value to equine practitioners, as the cases were drawn from both primary and referral practice, and were all seen within the last 5 years.
D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002423:Cause of Death; D005260:Female; D006734:Horse Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*; D006736:Horses; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality / Q000662:veterinary*; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors