Evaluation of mild lameness in horses trotting on a treadmill by clinicians and interns or residents and correlation of their assessments with kinematic gait analysis.

The study aims to gauge the effectiveness of subjective evaluation of mild lameness in horses during treadmill locomotion, and how well this evaluation correlates with scientific movement (kinematic) analysis. Overall, the research suggested that the subjective scoring of lameness tended to be inconsistent and was therefore an unreliable indicator of the animal’s true state.

Methods

• The study involved 19 lame horses and 5 clinically normal ones.
• The mild lameness was assessed via both subjective scoring by observers and objective kinematic analysis.
• The subjective evaluations were carried out by an assortment of six clinicians and seven interns or residents before and after application of a palmar digital nerve block (PDNB).
• The consistency and agreement of the evaluations were analyzed both within and between observers.

Results

• The researchers found that the agreement among the same observer (within-observer agreement) met the expected rate for conditions with moderate diagnostic difficulty.
• When comparing the evaluation consistency among the different professionals (between-observer agreement), it was found to be acceptable for scores within 1 value of each other. However, agreement was poor in terms of changes in lameness score after PDNB.
• Notably, after scoring asymmetry in the horse’s vertical head movement and the point of maximum hoof height during its swing phase, only two were among the top three variables for most of the clinicians.

Conclusions

• The analysis concluded that mild lameness could be difficult to assess when horses are moving on a treadmill.
• Although experienced clinicians were repeatable in their evaluation, they were not consistently accurate at identifying the true state of lameness, and interns or residents were less reliable.
• Finding a lack of agreement in scoring mild lameness between clinicians, the researchers emphasized the importance of incorporating more objective measures in lameness assessment.