HORSE RACING : Veterinary Researcher Claims Breakthrough in Bleeding

A Silver Springs, Md., veterinary researcher claims to have isolated an abnormality of the red blood cells that he believes to be the cause not only of exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage in racehorses but of other exercise-induced maladies common in the equine athlete. He also claims to have developed drugs that will correct the problem.

According to Dr. John H. Boucher, there is evidence that the red blood cell disease echinocytosis is the root of a number of “exertional diseases” found in most thoroughbreds, pulmonary hemorrhage (commonly known as “bleeding”) foremost among them. Echinocytosis, he claims, develops spontaneously when horses exercise intensely and is linked to muscle and orthopedic disease, exercise intolerance and equine sudden death. His research, Boucher claims, has led to the conclusion that a myriad of exertional diseases result from a single cause.

The occurrence of echinocytosis is marked by the spontaneous production of a large number of abnormal red blood cells called echinocytes. These are rigid cells that clump together, rupturing small blood vessels through which they have difficulty flowing, thereby disrupting the entire circulatory system.

Echinocytes and their relationship to tissue ischemia and abnormal pulmonary hemodynamics may be the missing link in understanding the origin of diseases associated with exercise, Boucher claims. Horses are the only species known to suffer disease as a result of exercise, Boucher said.

“I believe that the quality of blood flow to tissues of exercising horses is important, if not the key, to exertional diseases. An estimated 50 percent of horses that start into training never make it to the racetrack, but become discards due to exertional diseases or injury. Healthy thoroughbreds should be capable of racing about every 10-14 days. But not so, because of inevitable injuries and diseases associated with exercise.”

Studies undertaken in 1988 at Canterbury Downs by University of Minnesota researchers determined the blood of thoroughbreds to be three to four times more viscous immediately after a race than at rest. They also determined the cellular component of blood volume is 58-percent higher after exercise. Rigid red blood cells more than doubled by the end of a race.

Boucher’s company, Rheotech Labs, is developing therapeutic drugs known as hemorrheologic agents, which would correct the echinocyte problem by normalizing blood flow. These are being tested on horses at the University of Minnesota. Boucher envisions the drugs as replacements for current methods of treatment, particularly for furosemide (Lasix), which recent studies claim is not effective in treatment of pulmonary hemorrhage and acts as a performance-enhancing agent. Lasix, while prohibited for racing use in New York, is legal and widely used elsewhere.

The drugs being developed by Boucher’s firm, he claims, have no effect upon performance beyond normalizing blood flow. Boucher says these drugs also lack the power to mask the presence of other drugs, which is among the most controversial properties attributed to Lasix, a powerful diuretic.

Boucher’s research is a great distance and a substantial amount of developmental funding short of being approved by the Federal Drug Administration and eventually reaching the marketplace. It is further still from approval for racing purposes.

“If (bleeding) or any of the other exertional diseases that plague and abuse racehorses can be conquered, then the entire racing industry would gain,” Boucher said. “The gain would result from eliminating the needless loss of horses to disease, injury and death. That economic devastation drains trainers, horse owners and racetrack management.”