Dialysis as a potential treatment for atypical myopathy in equids

Abstract

Atypical myopathy is the term referring to the intoxication resulting from the ingestion of the environmental toxin, hypoglycin A. This illness, often lethal, affects grazing equids on pasture where the surroundings contain sycamore maple trees. The metabolite of hypoglycin A causes severe destruction in postural, respiratory and cardiac muscles. Hypoglycin A and its metabolite are detected in equids presenting the disease’s clinical signs. Both are eliminated by renal excretion and can be detected in the urine as well. In both human and small animal medicine, renal replacement therapy by dialysis has been used for decades as a treatment in case of acute renal failure and various toxicities. However, few studies have investigated this subject in horses. The investigation of the different dialysis properties and their applications to horses and atypical myopathy provide favorable elements for using dialysis in equids as well as in the treatment of atypical myopathy to eliminate the toxin and its metabolite. Complementary studies carried out on these molecules ‘properties along with an in vitro model could enable confirmation of this allegation.