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Does oral prednisolone treatment increase the incidence of acute laminitis?
Author(s) -
Jordan V. J.,
Ireland J. L.,
Rendle D. I.
Publication year - 2017
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.12565
Subject(s) - laminitis , prednisolone , medicine , horse , incidence (geometry) , retrospective cohort study , surgery , biology , paleontology , physics , optics
Summary Reasons for performing study It is accepted among equine practitioners that glucocorticoid treatment is a risk factor for the development of laminitis. However, there is little published evidence of a link between glucocorticoids and laminitis. Objectives To determine whether horses receiving oral prednisolone are at increased risk of laminitis. Study design Retrospective case–control study. Methods Clinical records of horses registered with the ambulatory service at Liphook Equine Hospital between January 2001 and November 2014 were reviewed retrospectively to identify horses that had received treatment with oral prednisolone. For each treated horse, 2 time‐matched controls that received veterinary attention but were not treated with prednisolone were selected. Incidence of laminitis was compared between the 2 groups and factors associated with laminitis were assessed using Cox regression analysis. Results Of the 416 horses treated with prednisolone, 16 (3.8%) were diagnosed with laminitis subsequent to the initiation of prednisolone treatment with an overall incidence of 2.60 (95% CI 1.49–4.22) cases per 100 horse‐years at risk. A total of 7 horses (1.7%) developed laminitis during the course of their treatment and 3 (0.7%) of the horses treated with prednisolone were ultimately subjected to euthanasia as a result of laminitis. A total of 46 (5.7%), of the 814 time‐matched control horses were diagnosed with laminitis during the study period with an overall incidence of 3.46 (95% CI 2.54–4.62) cases per 100 horse‐years at risk. Of these, 12 (1.5%) were subjected to euthanasia as a result of laminitis. There were no significant differences in the overall laminitis incidence rate (P = 0.8), incidence rate during prednisolone treatment (P = 0.09), or probability of laminitis (P = 0.3) between the 2 groups. Mean survival time was greater in the prednisolone than the control group. Equine metabolic syndrome and increasing age were associated with increased risk of laminitis. Conclusions Administration of oral prednisolone did not increase the risk of laminitis.