Plethysmography now Available at BVEH

BVEH is proud to announce the addition of a new diagnostic tool to diagnose breathing problems in performance horses. As the only clinic in Texas and one of a handful in the US with this equipment, BVEH is taking our ability to diagnose and treat airway/lung problems to a new level.


The Open Pleth™ with Equine Flowmetrics™ is a non-invasive tool to measure airway inflammation. As a compliment to the BAL, we can now better characterize the degree of problems, monitor response to therapy, and diagnose horses with a very low level of airway inflammation. 


Airway inflammation, also known as Inflammatory Airway Disease (IAD) is a type of bronchitis that will impact a horse's performance. Common complaints of horse's suffering from IAD include: slower times, prolonged recovery, coughing, and bleeding with exercise.

The system utilizes software that is a modification of traditional whole body plethysmography. Unlike traditional respiratory studies there is no use of an enclosure. Measurement of flow is made at the opening of the nares in the horse. Sensors over the chest and abdomen measure volume displacement. 


The flowmetric system compares flow at the nose and the chest/abdomen. Their differences help to identify sub-clinical respiratory problems. 


The system was kindly provided by Arenus to assist in our evaluation of their respiratory supplement Aleira. If you have a horse you think may have a respiratory problem or want more information, come see us.