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New Smartphone Tool Can Perform Equine ECG In The Field

Veterinarians in the field now have another tool at their disposal to assist with horse health care: a smartphone-based electrocardiogram (ECG) device.

Drs. Elena Alberti, Luca Stucchi, Valeria Pesce, Giovanni Stancari, Elisabetta Ferro, Francesco Ferrucci and Enrica Zucca, all with the University of Milan in Italy, have found that the hand-held tool is useful, practical and feasible to use.

Previously, the AliveCor Veterinary Heart Monitor had only been evaluated by its use on horses in an equine hospital; the scientific team set out to determine if the tool would be accurate when used in the field as conditions are less stable than in a hospital. The scientists created a study to compare the accuracy of smartphone-based ECGs that were recorded by the AliveCor Veterinary Heart Monitor and a standard ECG unit.

ECGs from both were recorded at the same time on both horses in a barn and horses in an equine hospital. The ECGs recorded on a smartphone were digitized by the device and emailed as a PDF; both sets were then analyzed on a laptop by an experienced clinician who didn't know which ECG was recorded by which device.

Both devices recorded the heart rate and rhythm similarly; they also evaluated atrioventricular block and premature complexes, P wave and PQ interval duration, and QRS complex duration and polarity the same. There were no differences between artefacts recorded in the hospital or in the field.

The scientists concluded that the results the AliveCor Veterinary Heart Monitor provided were accurate and that the smartphone-based monitor was a reliable diagnostic tool for vets in the field as well and in a hospital setting. They did, however, note that exceptional atmospheric conditions, like lightning storms, may prevent the AliveCor from recording in the field.

Read the article here.

New App Helps Owners Determine If Horses In Pain

A new smartphone app can help horse owners and caretakers determine if their horse is in pain. A joint project between the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Utrecht University and Stichting De Paardenkamp, the Equine Pain and Welfare App (EPWA) uses scientific pain measurement to help determine if a call to a veterinarian is warranted.

The app asks for user input on physiological variables, like heart and respiration rate; behaviors like lying down or rolling; and facial expressions that include the movement of the mouth, ears, eyes and nostrils. It then calculates a pain score between 0 and 18; users are advised to contact a vet if the score is above a 5.

The app also has a checklist to see if a horse is showing signs of Cushing's disease. A journal feature allows owners to input how much a horse eats, medications he may take and how often he exercises. It also includes 10 recommendations for equine welfare, and a place to record medical information and appointments.

The app is free from the App Store and Google Play.

For more details, click here (language can be changed through Google translate).

Stall-Side Test For Equine Disease May Assist With COVID-19 Detection

Scientists have discovered a way to use a cell phone's camera to detect respiratory diseases like equine influenza in horses; that same technology could help identify COVID-19 in humans. These easily spread diseases can cause large death tolls, as well as economic loss and disruption of daily life.

One complication to slowing the spread of diseases like these are the is the lack of widely available testing that can offer speedy and accurate results, reports The Horse. This means that communities are unable to make informed recommendations regarding quarantines that can help control the spread of the disease.

Early diagnosis of disease, whether in horses or humans, is key to controlling the spread of disease, notes Dr. Brian Cunningham, an electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. If obtaining results takes days, whether because of a backlog of samples or lab closures because of holidays, the virus has already spread before a positive result is even given. Adding to the potential delay in diagnosis and implementation of control strategies is that some affected patients may have more than one disease.

Cunningham has developed a testing technique for a variety of equine respiratory pathogens, including Streptococcus equi, EHV-1 and EHV-4, and equine influenza. The test uses nasal swabs to detect viral RNA, which is converted to DNA and then amplified in compartments on a silicon chip. Each compartment on the chip can be used to test for a different virus. The chemical reaction it produces replicates billions of copies of the original viral nucleic acid sequence. Fluorescent markers bind to the DNA during amplification, which can be seen on smartphone cameras as green light.

The entire test takes about 30 minutes and can be done stall side, eliminating the need to send samples to a lab and wait, possibly days, for results. With modification, the test could also be used to detect contagious human respiratory viruses like COVID-19.