The Study of Clinically Applicable, Non-invasive Respiratory/Pulmonary Function Testing by Natural Tidal Breathing Analysis in Small Animals (Domestic Cat Model)

• Main Authors: Chung-Hui Lin, 林中惠
• Other Authors: Chen-Hsuan Liu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/ut7p4d

博士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 獸醫學研究所 === 104 === Respiratory or pulmonary function testing is an objective assessment for evaluating chronic airway diseases, for aiding diagnosis, for stratifying preoperative risk, and for assessing disease progression and therapeutic response in clinical medicine. Although respiratory/pulmonary function assessment is routinely performed in human medicine, it is not widely used in veterinary medicine because of the uncooperative nature of small animal patients. Direct measurement of lung compliance and resistance can be performed to provide information of ventilatory mechanics, nevertheless, the requirement for general anesthesia and intubation could increase risk for respiratory patients and is not acceptable for most of pet owners. As a result, the development of a non-invasive method for assessing pulmonary function is of great importance in small animal clinical medicine. In the past few decades, attempts utilizing different instruments and techniques have been made for potential non-invasive respiratory/pulmonary function testing in cats and dogs, such as tidal breathing flow-volume loop (TBFVL) method that first developed for use in human infants, or barometric whole body plethysmography (BWBP) system that initially used in laboratory rodents. The limits of either method prevent the extensive application of respiratory/pulmonary function assessment in clinical feline and canine patients. The aims of this dissertation were to find out an alternative methodology to analyze natural tidal breathing signals, and seek for a clinically applicable, non-invasive respiratory/pulmonary function testing procedure that can be safely applied on small animal clinical patients. The result of our study has demonstrated a clinically applicable, non-invasive respiratory/pulmonary function testing by natural tidal breathing analysis. Simultaneous visual inspection for breathing waveforms facilitated the identification of artefacts and allowed the recording of stable tidal breathing signals. With the combination of advantages of previously existed instruments and methods, natural tidal breathes can be recorded with the BWBP system and analyzed by a different way that similar to conventional TBFVL method. Breathing pattern recognition is possible under the depiction of pseudoflow and pseudovolume with visual inspection for graphic tracing. Natural tidal breathing patterns could differ between normal animals and diseased ones. In specific disease entity such as feline lower airway disease, selected indices could be useful in indicating disease severity and monitoring therapeutic response. By qualifying and quantifying natural tidal breathing signals, respiratory/pulmonary mechanics could be assessed accordingly and utilized as a non-invasive respiratory/pulmonary function testing.