Thyroid hormone concentrations in foals affected by perinatal asphyxia syndrome.

The research article investigates the thyroid hormone levels in foals, both healthy and those affected by perinatal asphyxia syndrome (PAS). The study compares the thyroid hormone concentrations and establishes a possible link between PAS and altered thyroid hormone levels. It further explores whether thyroid hormone levels indicate prognosis for affected foals but found no significant evidence.

Objective and Methodology

• The research focuses on the study of thyroid hormone (TH) concentrations (T3 and T4) in healthy and perinatal asphyxia syndrome (PAS) affected foals.
• There are no previous known studies on this topic, thus giving the research its relevance.
• The specific objectives of the study were to assess the TH concentrations in healthy foals over their first week of life, to evaluate the same in critically ill foals impacted by PAS, and to compare the hormone levels between surviving and nonsurviving ill foals.
• A total of 45 Standardbred foals were studied, 21 of which were healthy (group 1) and 24 were affected by PAS (group 2).
• The blood samples were collected from the jugular vein within ten minutes from birth/admission and then every 24 hours for seven days.
• Thyroid hormone concentrations were then analyzed using Radio Immunoassay (RIA).

Results and Findings

• The collected data showed that in both groups, the T3 concentration was significantly lower at the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh days as compared to the first day.
• The T4 concentration was significantly higher at birth than all other time points.
• There were no observable differences in TH concentrations at admission between surviving and nonsurviving foals.
• PAS affected foals that were less than 12 hours old at admission showed significantly lower TH concentrations. This underscores a possible influence of PAS on thyroid hormone balance. It also aligns with findings from other studies regarding systemic illnesses like sepsis and prematurity.

Conclusion and Future Directions

• The study concludes that PAS could result in lower T3 and T4 concentrations in affected foals than in age-matched healthy foals.
• However, the studied TH concentrations showed no prognostic value, but this could be due to the small number of nonsurviving foals in the study.
• Despite the lack of a definitive prediction value, these findings incite further investigations to explore if thyroid replacement therapy could be useful in treating critically ill foals affected by PAS.