title: Functional assessment of expiratory flow pattern in feline lower airway disease.
abstract: Feline lower airway disease (FLAD) is a chronic respiratory disease of which there is a lack of information on functional assessment in current veterinary medicine. The purposes of this study were to investigate expiratory pattern and evaluate the diagnostic utility of functional parameters in cats with FLAD. Thirty-three client-owned cats (23 FLAD cats and 10 control cats) were studied. Under quiet tidal breathing, pseudo-tidal breathing flow-volume loop (pTBFVL) was obtained from a barometric whole body plethysmography (BWBP) device. There were significant differences in the shapes of expiratory, but not inspiratory, curves between FLAD and control cats. The incidence of the presence of concave expiratory curve indicating lower airway obstruction was 74% in FLAD cats. To assess the diagnostic utility of pTBFVL indices in cats with FLAD, area under the receiver-operator curve was 0.86 for PEF/EF50 (peak expiratory flow divided by expiratory flow at end expiratory volume plus 50% tidal volume); a cuff-off value of PEF/EF50 >1.51 distinguished normal from FLAD (73.9% sensitivity, 100% specificity). There were no significant differences in traditionally measured BWBP parameters (ie, enhanced pause) between cats with and without FLAD in the present study. In conclusion, underlying change on expiratory flow pattern during natural tidal breathing existed in FLAD cats, and selected pTBFVL indices were useful in discriminating FLAD from normal cats. Tidal breathing pattern depicted by pseudoflow-pseudovolume loops from a BWBP system could be a non-invasive tool for functional assessment in client-owned cats.
authors: Graduate Institute of Veterinary Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taiwan Section of Small Animal Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Veterinary Hospital, Taiwan.
authors: Chung-Hui
authors: CH
authors: Lin
authors: Graduate Institute of Veterinary Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taiwan Section of Small Animal Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Veterinary Hospital, Taiwan Graduate Institute of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taiwan.
authors: Jih-Jong
authors: JJ
authors: Lee
authors: Graduate Institute of Veterinary Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taiwan Graduate Institute of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taiwan Section of Diagnostic Pathology, National Taiwan University Veterinary Hospital, Taiwan chhsuliu@ntu.edu.tw.
authors: Chen-Hsuan
authors: CH
authors: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002371:Cat Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002415:Cats; D008176:Lung Volume Measurements / Q000662:veterinary*; D012123:Pulmonary Ventilation; D012016:Reference Values; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000662:veterinary*; D013990:Tidal Volume