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Subjective Evaluation of Lameness in Horses During Lungeing
Author(s) -
Hammarberg M,
Egenvall A,
Rhodin M
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
equine veterinary journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.82
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 2042-3306
pISSN - 0425-1644
DOI - 10.1111/evj.12267_124
Subject(s) - lameness , kappa , medicine , forelimb , physical medicine and rehabilitation , physical therapy , mathematics , anatomy , surgery , geometry
Lungeing is an important part of lameness examination since the circular path is thought to accentuate low‐grade lameness. Circle dependent, compensatory movement, and pain related asymmetries make lameness evaluation complex. Subjective evaluation, by watching the horse in motion, is standard practice but studies have shown that inter‐observer variation is high when assessing lameness (straight line movement). The aim was to estimate inter‐ and intra‐rater agreement between equine practitioners evaluating lameness from videos of sound and lame horses during lungeing. Methods Equine practitioners (n = 86), including 43 deemed as experienced, participated in a web‐based survey. Horses (n = 23, including two horses with solar‐pressure induced lameness) [defined as forelimb‐, hind limb‐lame or sound from objective kinematic straight line measurements] trotted on a circle in both directions on soft/hard ground surfaces (one condition/video). Of 104 recordings, 60 were selected of which 10 were repeated (numbers chosen to make compliance possible). The practitioners were asked to report which limb was most lame on each video. Kappa statistics were used to analyze the inter‐rater and intra‐rater agreement. The κ agreement was set to poor <0.3, acceptable 0.31–0.5, good 0.51–0.8, excellent >0.8. Results Inter‐rater agreement kappa (n = 86) was 0.31 (0.38/0.25 for experienced/less experienced). Evaluating forelimb compared to hind limb lameness agreement increased 11%. Intra‐rater agreement kappa (percentiles) was (P10‐50‐90, 0.21, 0.57, 0.84). Conclusions Since identification of the lame limb/limbs is a prerequisite for successful diagnosis, treatment and recovery, the high inter‐observer variation when evaluating lameness during lungeing may decrease the accuracy of lameness examinations. Ethical Animal Research The experimental procedures were approved by a local E thical C ommittee on A nimal E xperiments ( U ppsala, S weden), and there was a written consent from the horse owners. Sources of funding: S wedish‐ N orwegian F oundation for E quine R esearch. Competing interests: none.