Defining the moribund condition as an experimental endpoint for animal research.
Defining the moribund condition as an experimental endpoint for animal research.
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DOI：
10.1093/ilar.41.2.72
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发表时间：
2000
期刊：
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
L. Toth
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
L. Toth
减轻不必要的疼痛和痛苦的义务是生物医学研究中负责任地使用动物的一个重要相关因素。许多策略已被用于应对这一挑战，包括适当时给予镇痛剂和麻醉剂，减少试验动物的数量，避免使用死亡作为实验终点。然而，许多类型的研究方案与高死亡率有关，或需要产生明显可能导致实验动物死亡的进行性和严重疾病状态。这些类型的方案通常规定了实施先发制人安乐死的条件，并可能规定当动物”濒死“时将对其实施安乐死。“然而，具有不同生物医学背景的人可能对该术语的含义有不同的概念，从而使其定义不明确和任意解释。字典中对濒死的定义包括诸如“垂死”、“濒临死亡”、“处于垂死状态”或“接近死亡”等单词和短语。然而，这些定义对于实验室动物研究来说是非常有限的，因为它们没有从行为或生理方面描述濒死状态。开发一种合理的方法来识别濒死状态对于其作为实验终点的有效使用至关重要。濒死状态通常意味着即将死亡之前的严重虚弱状态。以下讨论描述了一种基于数据的一般方法，用于预测即将死亡，并以与特定实验模型相关的客观术语定义特定濒死状态（Toth 1997）。这一过程取决于研究人员确定预测实验动物死亡的客观数据标准的能力。在特定的实验模型中，几个可测量的条件似乎具有良好的预测价值。在特定实验的背景下，一种基于客观数据的方法来预测死亡，可以提供一个明确的信号，表明实验终点已经达到，从而促进及时实施安乐死，减少不必要的痛苦和痛苦。
The obligation to alleviate unnecessary pain and distress is an important correlate of the responsible use of animals in biomedical research. Many strategies have been used to meet this challenge, including administering analgesics and anesthetics when appropriate, reducing the numbers of animals tested, and avoiding the use of death as an experimental endpoint. However, many types of research protocols are associated with high mortality rates or require the production of progressive and severe disease states that clearly could cause the deaths of experimental animals. These types of protocols generally specify conditions under which preemptive euthanasia will be performed and may state that animals will be euthanized when they become" moribund." However, persons with different biomedical backgrounds may have varying concepts of the term's implications, rendering it poorly defined and arbitrarily interpreted. Dictionary definitions of moribund include words and phrases such as" dying,"" at the point of death,"" in the state of dying," or" approaching death." However, these definitions are severely limited for laboratory animal research because they do not describe the moribund state in behavioral or physiologic terms. Developing a sound approach to identifying the moribund state is crucial to its effective use as an experimental endpoint.The moribund condition typically implies a severely debilitated state that precedes imminent death. The following discussion describes a general data-based approach for predicting imminent death and defining specific moribund conditions in objective terms that are relevant to specific experimental models (Toth 1997). This process depends on the investigator's ability to identify objective data-based criteria that forecast the death of an experimental animal. Several measurable conditions appear to have good predictive value in specific experimental models. An objective data-based approach to predicting death in the context of specific experiments could provide an unambiguous signal that the experimental endpoint has been reached, thereby facilitating the implementation of timely euthanasia and reducing unnecessary pain and distress.