Stressed Out: HPA Axis Dysfunction in Equine Sepsis

摘要

Clinical and clinicopathologic evidence of systemic inflammation - such as hyperemic mucous membranes, fever, tachycardia, tachypnea, leukopenia or leukocytosis - are frequent findings in critically ill horses and foals, and horses with these signs can often be classified as having the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS).1 In adult horses, SIRS most commonly develops in association with gastrointestinal disease (colic, colitis), which in neonatal foals, local or systemic bacterial infection most often triggers SIRS.1-2 SIRS that occurs in conjunction with infection, such as in the newborn foal or in bacterial colitis in horses, is defined as sepsis.1 Septic shock develops when sepsis results in organ dysfunction and evidence of acute circulatory failure (e.g., persistent hypotension or hyperlactatemia).