Development and clinical relevance of radiological findings on the distal limb with consideration of the length of the examination interval - a follow-up study according to the radiological guidelines

作者：Mueller Anke; Hertsch Bodo; Stadtbaeumer Guido

来源：Praktische Tierarzt, 2011, 92(4): 312-318.

• horses
• feet
• radiography
• guidelines

The radiological guideline is a recommendation of the Bundestierarztekammer to evaluate the relevance of radiological findings within a prepurchase examination. It also includes a classification system for those findings. Probability for clinical occurrences to be found in an indefinite period of time is given in words and percentages for the different classifications. This evaluation presents the experience of renowned equine specialists, it is, however, not sufficiently based on scientific studies. In the thesis of Mueller (2008), progress and clinical relevance of radiological changes have been investigated by means of follow-up examinations. These data form the basis of the study at hand. It has been determined how radiological findings within the examined horse population has changed between examinations after different intervals. Based on the radiological guidelines each horse was assigned to a radiological class. A comparison between the first and follow-up examinations was carried out and great importance was given to the question whether the length of the examination interval has impact on the radiological findings. It was found that most of the horses (67,74-72,22 %) could be assigned the same radiological class in both examinations for an interval of up to three years. For observation periods longer than three years and shortened examination intervals an increasing part of the horses needed to be assigned to a higher radiological class. For a predominant number of cases this could not be traced back to a progression of the already existing findings but the occurrence of new ones.

• 出版日期2011-4-1