Premium
Assessment of gait irregularities in the horse: eye vs. gait analysis
Author(s) -
WEISHAUPT M. A.,
WIESTNER T.,
HOGG H. P.,
JORDAN P.,
AUER J. A.,
BARREY E.
Publication year - 2001
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/j.2042-3306.2001.tb05376.x
Subject(s) - lameness , ground reaction force , gait , gait analysis , treadmill , physical medicine and rehabilitation , pearson product moment correlation coefficient , horse , correlation , medicine , spearman's rank correlation coefficient , physical therapy , kinematics , mathematics , surgery , statistics , physics , biology , paleontology , geometry , classical mechanics
Summary The purpose of this study was to verify the sensitivity of 2 gait analysis methods in detecting subtle lameness and to compare the results to the traditional orthopaedic evaluation. Twenty‐two horses were evaluated (1) subjectively by 3 different experienced clinicians and (2) objectively with synchronised ground reaction force and accelerometric gait measurements on a treadmill. The horses were assigned for each of the 3 methods independently to one of 3 groups (GR): sound, lameness front limb, lameness hindlimb. Additionally, for each horse, the affected limb (AL) and degree of lameness (DL) were defined. The accordance between the 3 assessment methods for the categorical variables was tested with a Spearman correlation analysis. The relationship between vertical ground reaction forces and dorsoventral as well as mediolateral accelerations were studied using a Pearson correlation matrix. Significant correlation was found between the clinical GR and GR based on force (r = 0.51, P<0.05) and acceleration data (r = 0.47, P<0.05), respectively, and between AL based on clinical and ground reaction force (r = 0.65, P<0.05) assessment. No significant correlation was found, neither for GR between the 2 measuring methods, nor for DL between the 3 assessment methods. The Pearson correlation matrix revealed significant correlations between peak vertical forces and dorsoventral acceleration in the hindlimbs. We conclude that the measurement of kinetic parameters represents a helpful complementary tool in the assessment of subtle gait alterations. However, this information needs to be interpreted carefully and always related to the clinical observation.