Publications by authors named "Sophie Sage"

Article Synopsis
  • Recent research linked fungi in the tracheal wash (TW) of horses to mild-moderate equine asthma, but it’s unclear if the fungi cause asthma or result from changes due to asthma or the environment.
  • A study involving 73 horses, matched by their barn environment, aimed to clarify the relationship between TW fungi and asthma status, while controlling for various factors such as mucus accumulation and specific cell characteristics.
  • Findings showed that while increased tracheal mucus was associated with higher odds of asthma, the presence of fungi in TW was not linked to equine asthma at all.
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Background: Standard thoracic auscultation suffers from limitations, and no systematic analysis of breath sounds in asthmatic horses exists.

Objectives: First, characterize breath sounds in horses recorded using a novel digital auscultation device (DAD). Second, use DAD to compare breath variables and occurrence of adventitious sounds in healthy and asthmatic horses.

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Severe equine asthma (SEA) is a complex respiratory condition characterized by chronic airway inflammation. It shares many clinical and pathological features with human neutrophilic asthma, making it a valuable model for studying this condition. However, the immune mechanisms driving SEA have remained elusive.

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Background: The diagnostic value of allergen-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) in horses with asthma is uncertain. A recently developed protein microarray detected abnormally high latex-specific IgE concentrations in the serum of horses with severe asthma.

Objectives: The main objective was to characterize the IgE profiles of asthmatic horses in Switzerland using a protein microarray platform in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF).

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We used Pacific Biosciences long-read isoform sequencing to generate full-length transcript sequences in equine bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) cells. Our dataset consisted of 313,563 HiFi reads comprising 805 Mb of polished sequence information. The resulting equine BALF transcriptome consisted of 14,234 full-length transcript isoforms originating from 7017 unique genes.

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The transcriptomic profile of a cell population can now be studied at the cellular level using single-cell mRNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). This novel technique provides the unprecedented opportunity to explore the cellular composition of the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) of the horse, a species for which cell type markers are poorly described. Here, scRNA-seq technology was applied to cryopreserved equine BALF cells.

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Objectives: To determine the impact of age on survival in horses with colitis and to elucidate whether a lower type-1/type-2 cytokine ratio or an exaggerated inflammatory state contribute to reduced survival in aged horses.

Design: Part 1: Retrospective cohort analysis. Part 2: Analytic observational study.

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Age of complete ossification of equine occipital condyles has not been published. Consequently, clinical significance of occipital condyle defects on radiographs or CT scans of young horses remains unknown. The goals of this single-center, retrospective, cross-sectional study were to characterize incidental occipital condyle defects and to define the age of complete ossification.

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Background And Aims: Fecal microbial transplantation (FMT), a treatment for certain gastrointestinal conditions associated with dysbiosis in people, is also empirically employed in horses with colitis. This study used microbiota high-throughput sequencing to compare the fecal microbial profile of healthy horses to that of geriatric microbial transplant recipients experiencing diarrhea and tested whether FMT restores microbiota diversity.

Methods: To evaluate the effect of environment and donor characteristics on the intestinal microbiota, fecal samples were collected per rectum from 15 healthy young-adult (2-12 years) and 15 geriatric (≥20 years) horses.

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Background/objectives: Efficacy of topical sirolimus has recently been described in lymphatic anomalies but not in other types of vascular anomalies. To our knowledge, systemic absorption of topical sirolimus in these lesions has not yet been reported. The objective was to evaluate the efficacy, tolerance, and absorption of topical sirolimus 0.

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Remote-controlled aerial drones (or unmanned aerial vehicles; UAVs) are employed for surveillance by the military and police, which suggests that drone-captured footage might provide sufficient information for person identification. This study demonstrates that person identification from drone-captured images is poor when targets are unfamiliar (Experiment 1), when targets are familiar and the number of possible identities is restricted by context (Experiment 2), and when moving footage is employed (Experiment 3). Person information such as sex, race and age is also difficult to access from drone-captured footage (Experiment 4).

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