Flow interruption compared to forced oscillatory maneuvers and esophageal balloon-pneumotachography for measurement of respiratory resistance in the horse.

Pulmonary function testing is critical to the diagnosis of equine asthma (EA), an important cause of respiratory disease in the horse, but its clinical use has remained elusive, unfortunately, due to the complexity of reference methods, esophageal balloon/pneumotachography (EBP) and forced oscillatory mechanics (FOM), so we sought a non-invasive, portable method for use in horses through rapid interruption of airflow for equilibration of alveolar pressure with proximal airway pressure, termed flow interruption (FI). Resistance (R