Animal monitoring data collected during multifaceted experiments from a sheep model being treated for smoke-induced acute lung injury using veno-venous extra corporeal membrane oxygenation

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The source of data for this study was from a sheep model being treated for smoke-induced acute lung injury using veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, a form of extracorporeal life support (ECLS) developed to complement the treatment of acute lung injury in humans. During this type of ECLS, venous blood is carried from the patient to a gas exchange device where it becomes enriched with oxygen, has carbon dioxide removed, and is returned to the patient’s circulation in the right heart. This method can be used for treatment, as respiratory support during lung transplantation, and in critically ill patients with potentially reversible respiratory failure.
The source study was an ongoing publicly funded animal experimentation study (Queensland University of Technology Animal Ethics Approval No. 110000053).
The overall goal of the study was to provide useful information relevant to the sheep model, itself, and to those interested in large animal experimentation and veterinary medicine, generally. The specific objectives were: 1) use the raw data from the sheep model study to create a data management system for tabulating large data sets from human studies using animal models and, 2) analyse that data to provide biological information that is not currently available for sheep receiving ECLS following smoke-induced acute lung injury.
Data from 19 adult mechanically ventilated ewes undergoing intensive care in a previous study evaluating a form of extracorporeal life support (treatment) for acute lung injury were used to develop a comprehensive method for processing manual and electronically gathered clinical observations. Eight sheep were injured by acute smoke inhalation prior to treatment (injured/treated), while another eight were not injured but treated (uninjured/treated). Two sheep were injured but not treated (injured/untreated), while one received room air instead of smoke as the injury, and was not treated (placebo/untreated). The data were then analysed for 11 physiological categories and compared between the two treated groups.
Data consisted of separate files of real-time physiological data recorded on the hard drives of the monitoring devices (electronically acquired data), and parameters manually recorded by those monitoring the sheep under anaesthesia (manually acquired data), which included data from the electronic monitoring equipment, as back-up if the electronic monitor malfunctioned.
Data were tabulated and processed using spreadsheet (Microsoft® Excel 2010, Microsoft Corporation).
To meet the second objective, data from the groups, uninjured/treated and injured/treated groups were analysed. The means, medians and standard deviations of the weights of the sheep, where applicable, were tabulated. The physiological parameters of the groups were charted and compared against each other using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), where appropriate. Parameters between groups were compared using a paired two-tailed t-test. All p-values were two-sided and p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. All statistical calculations were performed using GraphPad PRISM 6 software (GraphPad Software, La Jolla, CA, USA).