Abstract
Brachycephalic airway syndrome (BAS) is a well-established cause of respiratory distress in dogs. BAS without surgical correction results in eventual laryngeal collapse. Arytenoid lateralization has been used to treat severe laryngeal collapse with some highly variable results. Chondromalacia and decreased stiffness of the arytenoid cartilage has been postulated a source of failure after arytenoid lateralization but no report of the histological characteristics and mechanical strength of arytenoid cartilage in brachycephalic dogs has been reported. Here we report histological and mechanical features in arytenoid cartilage of brachycephalic dogs. We identified the arytenoid cartilage in brachycephalic dogs presented degenerative histological characteristics and decreased load to failure and stiffness compared to that in non-brachycephalic dogs. Together, these observations suggest that degenerative condition of arytenoid cartilage in brachycephalic dogs could contribute to chondromalacia and mechanical weakness of arytenoid cartilage and result in cause of failure after arytenoid lateralization.
Highlights
Brachycephalic airway syndrome (BAS) is a well-established cause of respiratory distress in dogs [1,2,3]
Arytenoid cartilages were obtained from brachycephalic dogs (BC group) and non-brachycephalic dogs (NBC group) euthanized at Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital for reasons non-related to the study
Arytenoid cartilage samples were obtained from four brachycephalic dogs and eight nonbrachycephalic dogs for both histological assessment and biomechanical testing (Table 1)
Summary
Brachycephalic airway syndrome (BAS) is a well-established cause of respiratory distress in dogs [1,2,3]. Primary characteristics of BAS include congenital anatomic abnormalities such as skull confirmation anomalies, soft tissue changes (e.g.; stenotic nares, elongated soft palate), hypoplastic trachea, and nasopharyngeal turbinates. No study has been reported to establish exact pathophysiology of laryngeal collapse in brachycephalic dogs these anatomic abnormalities increase airway resistance during inspiration and has been widely considered to lead to development of secondary changes that include severe soft tissue edema of palate and larynx, everted saccule and tonsil, and laryngeal collapse [4, 5]. No research has investigated changes in rigidity of laryngeal cartilage or correlation between laryngeal cartilage stiffness and timing of surgical correction for primary BAS components such as stenotic nares or elongated soft palate.
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