2017 ACVIM Forum Research Abstract Program

Consequently, equine clinicians primarily rely on physical exam parameters and blood lactate to guide therapy. Because placement of a pulmonary artery catheter in neonatal foals to measure mixed venous blood (S v O 2 ) is clinically impractical, the objective of this study was to evaluate parameters associated with global oxygen from central venous blood in healthy neonatal foals. Specifically, in this study, the following parameters were measured from 12 healthy neonatal foals from central venous (cv) and arterial (a) blood: saturation of hemoglobin with oxygen (S cv O 2 , S a O 2 ), partial pressure of oxygen (P cv O 2 , P a O 2 ), partial pressure of CO 2 (P cv CO 2 , P a CO 2 ), pH (pH cv , pH a ) and L-lactate (Lac cv , Lac a ). Additionally, the following parameters reflecting global oxygenation were calculated: venous-to-arterial CO 2 gap (dCO 2 ), oxygen extraction ratio (O 2 ER), ratio between P a O 2 and the fraction of inspired oxygen (P a O 2 :F I O 2 ratio) and central venous and arterial bicarbonate (HCO 3cv , HCO 3a ), base excess (BE cv , BE a ), hemoglobin (Hb cv , Hb a ) and oxygen content (O 2 Ct cv , O 2 Ct a ).